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