Tyler Callicott, the Alberta Energy Regulator's director of enforcement, wrote in a judgment that Calgary-based oil giant CNRL failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent wildlife coming into contact with toxic tailings.Alberta Energy Regulator/The Canadian Press
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has been fined $278,000 for a major environmental infraction that killed birds and endangered coyotes and wolves near its Horizon oil sands mining operation in Northern Alberta.
The Alberta Energy Regulator levied the fine this month. Tyler Callicott, its director of enforcement, wrote in a judgment that the Calgary-based oil giant failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent wildlife coming into contact with toxic tailings at the oil sands site. CNRL’s CNQ-T net earnings were $8.2-billion in 2023.
The fine stems from CNRL’s lack of action after it discovered that an island had formed in a tailings pond at Horizon in the spring of 2021. Tailings ponds contain process-affected water and bitumen that is toxic to wildlife – both to birds, which lose their insulation, waterproofing and ability to fly when heavily oiled, and to the predators that eat them.
No birds were nesting on the island when CNRL first noticed it in 2021, so the company continued with its usual bird-deterrent activities until the island was eventually submerged by rising water. It made no effort to eliminate the island or manage the level of water to prevent its re-emergence, according to a written decision from the Alberta Energy Regulator.
In the spring of 2022, the island re-emerged, and became a habitat and nesting site for birds – and their predators, such as wolves and coyotes, which could access the island through a strip of shallow water.
On May 21, 2022, CNRL discovered 271 California gull nests and a Canada goose nest on the island.
Two weeks later it notified the regulator of the formation of the island and measures it was taking to prevent birds from coming into contact with toxic tailings.
“These, and subsequent, mitigation measures were not effective in preventing animals from coming into contact with a hazardous substance,” Mr. Callicott wrote in his decision.
The regulator deemed the incident major, given that CNRL reported 411 bird fatalities between May and August, 2022, and that coyotes and wolves accessed the island through the water of the tailings facility and killed oiled birds.
While CNRL was fortunate to not have birds nest on the island in 2021, Mr. Callicott wrote, “this should not have been relied upon to say the island was low risk,” because it was an attractive habitat for birds in a facility that the company itself has identified as a high-risk area.
CNRL should have taken action to address the island in 2021, predicted and prevented re-emergence of the island in 2022, and done more to address the island once it did so, he wrote. “CNRL failing to take these actions is the primary cause of this incident.”
CNRL said in an e-mail Monday that it regrets the situation, and will use lessons it has learned to mitigate the chance of it happening again. It is reviewing the regulator’s enforcement decision and its potential responses.