500 Ducks Die at Oil Sands Tailings Pond

[JesseJ]

But I still drive an SUV...

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta.-- Of the 500 ducks that landed in a toxic waste pond at a northern Alberta mine, only five are worth trying to save, an oilsands company said Wednesday.
The grim news came as questions arose over how quickly Syncrude Canada reported that the waterfowl had landed in the tailings pond at the company's Aurora mine site, 485 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Tailings ponds hold a mix of clay, water, sand, hydrocarbons and heavy metals that is left over after water washes oil out of sand in the oilsands extraction process.
The ducks' demise is a public-relations nightmare for the Alberta government, which has been trying to convince domestic and international critics that production in the province's oilsands is environmentally friendly.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=482931

[dukee]

But, to put it into perspective, wind turbines kills tens of thousands of birds each year, and housecats kill millions of birds.

[stampeder]

And to put it into realistic perspective...

There was once an NRC wind turbine test rig installed at Cowley Ridge in Alberta in the early 1980s that had a vertical axis and spun at great speed - its nickname was the "Egg Beater" and it was dangerous for unfortunate fowl to approach. It was shut down long ago and has never been restarted since then. It was replaced by slow-revolving horizontal-axis windmills (as used and researched around the world) that pose no known risk to avian wildlife.

The lie about windmills killing birds was laid to rest long ago, but it seems to come up now and then for unfortunate reasons.

The tailing ponds at Fort McMurray have been an environmental disaster from day one, but the full ramifications haven't become known to the public until recently. Thank you public. Politicians: answer the concerns of your constituents rather than telling them that they are wrong.

Since there has been mention of house cats and small birds, let's get a grip here. We're not talking about vermin, small (usually non-native) birds, rats, or mice, we're talking about human beings - thousands of Dene and Cree - who live downstream from those tailing ponds who need to know just exactly what their health risks are from them given that about 90% of migratory birds that landed on them one day perished.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by JesseJ

But I still drive an SUV...

I don't have guilt about my vehicle - I fuel up because I have to get somewhere and there are no logical alternative means. Transit is preposterous in my neighbourhood, and I fume that electrical cars have been taken off the shelf for consumers.

We live in a world with a sick dependency on the ever-decreasing stock of oil and gas, but I still have to make my way through the towns and cities that were designed for the automobile. I don't foresee a lot of change happening soon, but that's life and it is apallingly stupid.

[dukee]

The lie about windmills killing birds was laid to rest long ago, but it seems to come up now and then for unfortunate reasons.

It is not a lie. Windmills do kill birds. So does the picture window of my house (that many a bird has been killed by after flying into).

I am just putting the number of birds killed in this instance into perspective.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by dukee

Windmills do kill birds.

It doesn't hold up. Its over:

Arguably the best of the intensive studies was carried out by Canadian Ross James. His year-long field work at a Toronto wind turbine sited in the middle of a fall migration route turned up three birds killed. He also watched birds change course to avoid the turbine blades, an observation shared by many other observers. His final conclusion: "The greatest threat to all wildlife is still loss and/or degradation of habitat."

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg...9Windmills.htm

BTW we've put up nice stained glass birdies onto our big windows and we haven't had crashes in a long time. Just a suggestion for cohabitating better with our other earthly occupants.

The tailing ponds at Fort McMurray are an environmental disaster and a national humiliation.

[Chumley]

"A single death is a tragedy, <500> deaths is a statistic."

Joseph Stalin

[jwt873]

Wind farms do kill birds, but it's not the slaughter that some try to make it appear.

The quotes below are excerps taken from an article in DEFENSE of wind farms. The article was meant to put wind farms into perspective, but it also puts the "500 duck" story into perspective too:

http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html

Utility transmission and distribution lines, the backbone of our electrical power system, are responsible for 130 to 174 million bird deaths a year in the U.S.

Collisions with automobiles and trucks result in the deaths of between 60 and 80 million birds annually in the U.S

Tall building and residential house windows also claim their share of birds. Some of the five million tall buildings in U.S. cities have been documented as being a chronic mortality problem for migrating birds.

Lighted communication towers turn out to be one of the more serious problems for birds, especially for migratory species that fly at night. One television transmitter tower in Eau Claire, WI, was responsible for the deaths of over 1,000 birds on each of 24 consecutive nights.

Agricultural pesticides are "conservatively estimated" to directly kill 67 million birds per year

Cats, both feral and housecats, also take their toll on birds. A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report states that, "recent research suggests that rural free-ranging domestic cats in Wisconsin may be killing between 8 and 217 million birds each year.

[JesseJ]

Maybe the true story here is that Syncrude did not immeadiately report the incident, and not the fact that birds had died. Birds die, I get it. Oilsands production is obviously neither safe nor clean, nor is it an enviromnentally friendly alternative.

The grim news came as questions arose over how quickly Syncrude Canada reported that the waterfowl had landed in the tailings pond at the company's Aurora mine site, 485 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

[stampeder]

Yes, agreed. The story is much bigger than that of unfortunate birds, and I'll state again that Cree and Dene people downstream from the tailing ponds are demanding answers, not coy "ducking" of this issue to deflect criticism.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by dukee

But, to put it into perspective, wind turbines kills tens of thousands of birds each year, and housecats kill millions of birds.

For one thing, house cats killing birds is considered natural. 500 of them dying in a tailings pond is definitely not a naturally occuring event.

Besides, the public cares not about perspective. They care that 500 birds died needlessly in a toxic pond created buy a greedy oil company. Its a PR nightmare.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by jwt873

Wind farms do kill birds, but it's not the slaughter that some try to make it appear.

The quotes below are excerps taken from an article in DEFENSE of wind farms. The article was meant to put wind farms into perspective, but it also puts the "500 duck" story into perspective too:

http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html

8 million -217 million? Im sorry, but anyone who uses a spread that big cant be trusted. It could very well be possible, but that number suggests he did extremely little research.

[hugh]

Besides, the public cares not about perspective. They care that 500 birds died needlessly in a toxic pond created buy a greedy oil company. Its a PR nightmare.

It's an environmental disaster.


Let's drop the wind farm issue and stick to the topic at hand.

[Arthur Dent]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

Besides, the public cares not about perspective. They care that 500 birds died needlessly in a toxic pond created buy a greedy oil company. Its a PR nightmare.

I wonder, if the oil company responsible wasn't "greedy", would that tragedy still have made the headlines? Or it's the word "oil" that struck the special chord in every Greenpeace heart?

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by Arthur Dent

I wonder, if the oil company responsible wasn't "greedy", would that tragedy still have made the headlines? Or it's the word "oil" that struck the special chord in every Greenpeace heart?

Pretty much. Whens the last time you DIDNT hear people complaining about oil prices? Not to mention other well known evinromental disasters caused by oil companies .Oil companies are already on thin ice when it comes to PR.

Im not necessarily trying to imply that all oil companies are "greedy" or that they all care more about $$$ than the environment. But its easy for the general public to feel this way, so this ducks situation just adds more fuel to an already giant fire.