EDMONTON - A multinational energy giant has been penalized nearly $200,000 for violating water regulations at its oilsands site in northern Alberta.
As part of the penalty, Norway-based Statoil will spend $185,000 to create a website to share best practices on how the province's energy industry uses surface water. Another $5,000 will be paid as a fine.
An Edmonton court heard in mid-August that Statoil would plead guilty to at least some of the environmental charges laid against its oilsands operations.
The company was charged in February under provincial laws with 16 counts of improperly diverting water for use at its in-situ site near Conklin, Alta.
The company also faces three counts of providing false or misleading statements about the alleged activity in 2008 and 2009.
The maximum fine faced by Statoil would have been $500,000 for each charge.
Investigators found that between December 2008 and May 2009 water, Statoil diverted water from bodies that were not covered by the company's temporary diversion licence.
Statoil also took more water than permitted and didn't monitor how much it took. The company also underestimated the diverted volume in a report to regulators, according to a release from the Alberta government.
The fine was levied in provincial court.
Alberta has legislation that allows for the government to work out a sentence other than the fines called for by law.
When Syncrude was sentenced last fall in the death of 1,600 migrating ducks on its tailings ponds, it was ordered to fund habitat restoration, studies on bird deterrence and an environmental studies program. The total cost of the penalty was $3 million.
A spokeswoman for Greenpeace Canada scoffed at the penalty.
"It is hard to take the government of Alberta's supposed new-found commitment to water protection seriously, when 97 per cent of an oil company's fine for illegal water taking is paid to an industry association," said Melina Laboucan-Massimo.
"The only thing the industry will learn from this is that they can break environmental laws in Alberta with impunity."
A Norway-based Greenpeace member also said Statoil should pull out of the oilsands.
"There is just no sustainable way of extracting tar sands," Martin Norman said in a news release late Monday.
