"After analyzing the situation, it is clear the seepage was not communicated to affected communities in a timely or appropriate way by the company or the provincial regulator, nor was the federal government made aware in a timely manner," Canada's Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement. The total volume of oil sands tailings held in ponds reached 1.35 billion cubic metres in 2021, according to the regulator. (Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Deepa Babington and Rosalba O'Brien)
Messaging: nia.williams.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) (Recasts with testimony from Indigenous community
representatives, adds Imperial and AER comment)
By Nia Williams
April 17 (Reuters) - Indigenous communities in Canada's
oil sands region on Monday called for Alberta's energy regulator
to be disbanded and replaced following a months-long toxic
tailings seepage from Imperial Oil's Kearl oil sands
mine.
Community representatives were testifying to a
parliamentary committee in Ottawa about the impact of the leak
and ongoing concerns about oil sands tailings management.
Imperial, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp , first detected
discoloured water near its Kearl site last May, but the company
and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) failed to update local
First Nations communities when testing showed the water
contained tailings, a waste product of mining.
The tailings seepage only became widely publicised in
February after a second leak from a drainage pond.
In a March statement, Imperial said it deeply regretted not
providing regular communications to communities after its
initial update and would take necessary steps to improve
communications in future.
Indigenous community representatives said the AER was too
sympathetic to industry.
"I think you need to scrap it and build it back. I don't
think it's salvageable in its current form," Daniel Stuckless,
director of the Fort McKay Métis Nation, told the committee.
Timothy Clark, principal of environmental consultancy Willow
Springs Strategic Solutions, which is working with the Fort
McMurray Métis Nation, said the AER had undergone "regulatory
capture".
"The regulator is constantly pulling the direction of the
conversation in the interests of the regulated parties rather
than the public interest," Clark said.
The AER has released regular updates on its monitoring of
the Kearl leak. On March 2, the regulator said it was always
looking to improve relationships and engagement with Indigenous
communities. "If this event highlights an opportunity to do so
we will pursue it," the regulator added.
Imperial and the AER will testify on Thursday.
On Monday the federal government released details of a new
working group to improve monitoring of environmental risks from
oil sands tailings ponds. The group will include Indigenous
leaders, federal and provincial governments, and oil sands
company representatives.
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