Ducks trapped in lake of toxic sludge

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) -- About 500 migrating ducks were dead or dying after landing on a pond owned by oil-sands company Syncrude Canada Ltd., officials said.

The small lake full of toxic sludge is hampering rescue efforts.

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach was visibly angry Tuesday as he questioned why noise-making cannons were not deployed to scare the waterfowl away from the pond filled with oil-sands wastes.

Company and government officials estimate that there are 500 birds trapped in the toxic pond in a disaster they say has never before been witnessed in the northern Alberta oil-sands region.

"Many of them will die as a result of this incident," Syncrude spokesman Alain Moore said.

The birds landed on the pond Monday.

Moore said the company is working with Alberta Fish and Wildlife in hopes of rescuing some of the birds.

But Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner said late Tuesday that it is looking doubtful that any of the birds can be saved.

Renner explained that the surviving birds are diving under the toxic water when approached, making recovery nearly impossible.

"This is a tragedy, and this is unacceptable, and we're going to do everything within our power to find out why it occurred and, more importantly, to prevent it from occurring again," Renner said.

A Syncrude statement released Tuesday afternoon said that noise makers are used from spring to fall to deter birds from entering the ponds but that a recent heavy snowfall delayed the deployment of these devices.

"This is the first time a large flock of birds has landed on a settling basin in Syncrude's 30 years of operation," the release said.

A statement by Alberta Environment warned of fines of up to $987,000 if Syncrude did not have equipment in operation to scare birds away from the toxic pond.

Stelmach said he is concerned that Syncrude did not report the incident and that the government was alerted by a tipster who called Monday night.

"If something has happened of this sort, then we feel that the company is obligated to report to the minister of the environment," Stelmach said. "It's a condition of the licence."

Garry Keller, a spokesman for Federal Environment Minister John Baird, said the department has asked Environment Canada enforcement officials "to take immediate action to investigate this serious matter, including whether any laws were broken."

Keller said federal officials would work in conjunction with the provincial investigation.

This waterfowl disaster comes as Alberta Deputy Premier Ron Stevens is in Washington trying to persuade U.S. lawmakers to ignore the view taken by environmental groups that Alberta's oil-sands projects have been developed at a huge cost to the environment.

The Americans are developing a law that will restrict imports of "dirty oil" that produce more greenhouse gas emissions than other sources. Environmentalists said that should include the synthetic crude produced from the tarlike bitumen in northern Alberta.

Stevens is trying to get the oil sands exempted from this law, but he has been dogged by environmentalists who took out an ad in a Capitol Hill newspaper that has the maple leaf oozing oil.

Alberta is home to vast reserves of oil sands, a tarlike bitumen that is extracted using mining techniques. Industry officials estimate that the region could yield as much as 175 billion barrels of oil, making Canada second only to Saudi Arabia in crude oil reserves. E-mail to a friend

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