Recent leaks from oil sands tailings ponds have contaminated water, sowing mistrust among local First Nations people.
Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine has been leaking toxic industrial wastewater, called tailings, onto the territories of numerous Indigenous communities, including Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation, for over nine months.
In May 2022 Calgary-based Imperial Oil notified Alberta’s energy regulator it had discovered discolored water near its Kearl oil sands project. It didn’t take long for the regulator to figure out what was going on.
The contaminated water had come from tailings ponds where the company stored the toxic sludge-like byproducts of bitumen mining. Environmental samples showed high levels of several toxic contaminants, including arsenic, iron, sulfate, and hydrocarbon – all of which exceeded provincial guidelines, according to The Guardian.
However, the company failed to notify the federal government and nearby Indigenous communities. In February, there was another leak, in which 5.3 million liters of tailings water escaped from an overflowing catchment pond. This time, the community was informed two days later.
This week, the energy giant Suncor also announced a leak of 6 million liters from a sediment holding facility. In an email to the Guardian, the regulator said the leak “is not processed water from tailings, it is drainage from the surrounding landscape” and doesn’t contain tailings.
Imperial Oil CEO testifies before House of Commons
On Thursday last week, according to the Globe and Mail, Chief Executive Officer Brad Corson began his testimony before the House of Commons environment committee with a land acknowledgment, an apology, and a promise to “do better.”
But that wasn’t enough to head off MPs from every political party, who took Mr. Corson to task, accusing Imperial Oil of everything from hiding information and allowing Indigenous communities to live in fear to overseeing a continuing environmental disaster.
Mr. Corson and two other executives appeared at the environment committee Thursday to explain how they handled the leak and spill. Representatives from six First Nation and Métis communities downstream from Kearl also testified this week, telling the committee that the incidents have broken their trust in the company, the Alberta Energy Regulator, and the provincial government.
“Water is sacred. It’s our lifeblood. A life force that is a sacred element in many Indigenous Peoples’s cultures around the globe. When companies like Imperial Oil recklessly pollute the waterways of Indigenous nations with toxic waste, they are not just threatening the environment, but also the very existence of the downstream communities. Our rally against Imperial Oil was a necessary act of resistance and of solidarity.” said Tori Cress, Communications Manager at Keepers of the Water and Anishinaabe from G’Chimnissing.
What is really mind-blowing is that one year on, the oil company still has no estimate of the volume of tailings-tainted water that has leaked into the environment. That’s because “there’s a lot of complexity in the calculation” to measure fluids on and under the surface, Mr. Corson said.
MPs also questioned how Mr. Corson’s compensation could have doubled in the same year that its systems failed to prevent the leaks of toxic waste, making him the highest-paid oil executive in the country.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May suggested he give some of his $17.34-million pay to Greenpeace, which projected a “Charge Imperial Oil Now” message onto the Supreme Court of Canada building Wednesday night.
Environmental Defence Canada is reporting that the tar sands’ tailings “ponds” now contain over 1.4 trillion liters of waste, covering an area more than 2.6 times the size of Vancouver.
