Canada oil sands leak heightens First Nations’ calls to clean up tailings

Photo: Demonstrators rally against Imperial Oil’s ongoing tailings pond leak, in Ottawa By Nia Williams

(Reuters) – In early February, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta started fielding calls from community members after the provincial regulator revealed toxic wastewater had been leaking for months from a tailings pond at Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mine.

Many in the community hunt and fish downstream of Canada’s huge bitumen mines, and wanted to know if the game meat in their freezers was safe to eat.

“I just told them throw the meat away,” Adam said. “Don’t even feed it to your dog.”

The seepage was discovered by Imperial, a unit of Exxon Mobil, last May but local communities only learned the water contained tailings in February, after a second leak occurred.

Imperial CEO Brad Corson apologized for the leak and the lapse in communication during questioning at a parliamentary committee in Ottawa last week.

In response to Reuters questions, Imperial said it is addressing the seepage by drilling extra monitoring and collection wells, and there is no indication of impacts to wildlife or fish.

The leaks have reignited concerns among First Nations, policy makers and environmentalists […]

Full article: news.yahoo.com

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