ST. ALBERT, Alta. - A lawyer for Syncrude Canada is suggesting the federal government stopped company workers from cleaning oily bitumen from some of the 1,600 birds that landed on a massive toxic tailings pond two years ago.
Syncrude lawyer Robert White asked Wednesday whether federal officials stopped a team of employees from washing the struggling birds because the company didn't have permits to handle wildlife.
"Do you have personal knowledge of the federal government telling Syncrude to discontinue cleaning efforts?" he asked Todd Powell, a senior wildlife biologist for the Alberta government.
"I do not have any knowledge of that," Powell replied.
Syncrude is on trial on federal and Alberta environmental charges over the deaths of the ducks in its Aurora tailings pond on April 28, 2008. The murky, man-made pond is about the size of 640 football fields.
The Crown contends that Syncrude was the only oilsands company in the area that didn't have special sonic cannons deployed that day to scare away waterfowl. In some places the pond was covered by a 15-centimetre thick mat of foamy bitumen scum.
Syncrude has admitted the death of the ducks was a horrible mistake. But the company is also adamant that it shouldn't be facing charges.
Powell said the day after the ducks landed on the pond, he suggested to Syncrude that its workers start trying to clean the few surviving birds.
Teams of workers wearing overalls and gloves bathed some ducks by hand over the next two days until the birds were sent to a facility in Edmonton that had more experience in dealing with oil-soaked birds. The oily bitumen is toxic when ingested and prevents birds from preening their feathers to stay warm.
Powell testified that, even with treatment, it was unlikely the ducks would have survived the ordeal of landing in the tailings.
White also challenged the effectiveness of using sound cannons to scare ducks away from oilsands ponds. He said birds lose their fear of sonic cannons after about two hours.
Powell testified that some birds, such as ravens, lose their fear of the cannons because they hear them so often. But he said ducks are usually scared away from an area by the sound and don't come back.
The death of the ducks in 2008 made headlines around the world and focused attention on the environmental sustainability of oilsands tailings ponds.
In the weeks following the disaster Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the loss of the birds in the toxic sludge had tarred the international image of both Alberta and Canada.
