Syncrude face duck death fines

OTTAWA – CANADIAN environmental authorities on Monday charged Syncrude in the death of 500 migrating ducks that landed in its oil sands sewage ponds in western Canada.

The waterfowl died after being coated in April 2008 with toxic oil residue from an Alberta mine left behind in the ponds by Syncrude Canada Limited, the world’s largest producer of synthetic crude oil from oil sands.


Officials allege Syncrude did not use noise makers designed to scare birds from the contaminated ponds and did not immediately report the ducks’ demise, as required by law.

‘This was the single largest reported incident of oiled birds in the oilsands region,’ Environment Canada said in a statement. The Alberta government called it ‘an environmental tragedy.’

Straits Times