The chief says that band members have been getting food from land near the spills
A leader of the Indigenous people who live in northern Alberta has accused Imperial Oil Ltd. of hiding the fact that a lot of toxic oilsands tailings were dumped on land near where his people gather food for nine months.
Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said Thursday that Imperial executives had several chances to tell him in person about the 5.3-million-liter leak after it was found in May 2022.
He found out about it when, on February 6, the province’s energy regulator put out an order to protect the environment.
“During that nine-month period, ACFN met with them many times, including a face-to-face meeting in November between myself and the vice president,” Adam told reporters on Thursday. “Each meeting was a chance for them to tell us the truth, but they chose to lie to us again and again.”
Imperial said that it was sorry about the communication and that it wouldn’t happen again.
In a statement released Thursday, Imperial’s vice president of mining, Jamie Long, said, “We have told Chief Adam that we are sorry that our communications did not meet the expectations of the Athabasca Chipewyan community.”
“We also promised him that we would take the steps we needed to improve our communication so that this wouldn’t happen again.”
It was one of the biggest spills in Alberta
In May, workers at Imperial noticed that water was getting out of a tailings pond and rising to the surface. The company confirmed that the leak was wastewater from the tailings that got through a fill layer.
The federal and provincial guidelines for iron, arsenic, sulfates, and hydrocarbons, which could include kerosene, creosote, and diesel, are exceeded by an amount of wastewater that is unknown. The leak hasn’t stopped.
Also, 5.3 million liters of water leaked out of a dam that was supposed to catch tailings but got away. On its own, that makes it one of the biggest oil spills in Alberta’s history.
The tailings got into a muskeg, a forest, a small lake, and rivers that flowed into the Firebag and Muskeg.
“How many more leaks of tailings are happening right now?” Allan asked.
Before the Alberta Energy Regulator issued the order to protect the environment, no one knew about the two releases. Adam says that by that time, his people had been sharing food from nearby fields for months.
“People who hunt and fish in the area could have exposed animals to these deadly chemicals.” “We have been eating them for months without knowing how dangerous they could be.”
Imperial has said that the releases haven’t hurt the water or wildlife in any way.
Members of the band have taken pictures of moose tracks that go through the area. People have been told not to eat wildlife from the area, and the town of Fort Chipewyan has moved its water source from the Athabasca River to a reservoir.
The government agency told Imperial to show how it would stop the leaks and prevent them from happening again by February 28. Imperial was also told to come up with a plan for monitoring and fixing the problem, as well as a plan for getting the word out to the public.
A spokeswoman for the government agency said that Imperial has done what was needed.
In a statement, the regulator said that it is not its job to tell people who are affected about releases.
It said, “It is the licensee’s responsibility to report fluid releases to affected or potentially affected parties as soon as they become aware of the release.” It also said that an investigation had been started.
‘Regret these incidents
Long said in a statement that Imperial cares about its connections with local communities.
“We are doing everything we can to learn from these things and stop them from happening again,” he said.
To stop the seepage, Imperial has added more monitoring and pumped wells. Trees and topsoil have been taken from the area. It was said that more places would be built to catch water.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has had people there to enforce the law.
In the mine’s first environmental assessment, it was said that there was a chance of a tailings leak. The Joint Panel Review that looked at Kearl said that the tailings pond was in a place where the soil was very porous.
In 2014, research from federal scientists showed that water affected by the oilsands process had reached groundwater and was probably making its way into the Athabasca River. The Alberta government said at the time that the research was interesting, but they didn’t confirm anything.
In 2020, a group that reported to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization said there was “scientifically valid evidence” that the tailings ponds were polluting the groundwater. The government said that it was looking over the report but that the evidence wasn’t strong enough to prove anything.