Current Problems: Environment
Exploring Theme: "Specific Industry Environmental Issues"
Updates on this page: 26
(Filtered by Stakeholder "Alberta")
April 19, 2024
The federal government must tackle water pollution from the oilsands
The government already has the necessary power. It just needs the courage to use it to stop contamination from tailings ponds. NationTalk: Policy Options – Perched on the shores of the Athabasca River in northern Alberta are a staggering 1.4 trillion litres of toxic industrial waste, stored in open pits known as tailings ponds created...
April 17, 2024
Alberta pipeline sparks wildfire west of Edmonton
More than two dozen firefighers are battling the blaze A wildfire burns near Edson, Alta., in this Tuesday, April 16, 2024 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Alberta Wildfire APTN News: The Canadian Press – The Canadian Energy Regulator says it’s working with the province and federal departments after a natural gas pipeline owned by TC...
March 11, 2024
First Nations, Métis and environmental groups request investigation of harmful tailings pond substance
NationTalk: OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE – In January 2024, Canada announced their decision to not include naphthenic acids in the list of regulated substances in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Environmental groups and a First Nation have submitted a formal request for the federal government to assess the harms caused by...
March 8, 2024
Why this First Nation is Right to Sue the Alberta Energy Regulator over Last Year’s Toxic Tailings Leak
NationTalk: Environmental Defence – Last year, one of Imperial Oil’s mines in the tar sands leaked toxic industrial waste into the surrounding environment. Instead of informing downstream communities, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) helped Imperial cover up the spill for over nine months. Now the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) – one of the downstream...
March 6, 2024
‘Everything is going downhill’: Athabasca Fort Chipewyan files lawsuit against Alberta regulator over Kearl spill
Reaction mixed to spill and whether tar sands are harming environment. Jean L’hommecourt co-chair of the Keepers for the water holds up a sign at Tuesday’s meeting. Photo: Danielle Paradis/APTN. APTN News: At a tense community meeting, Athabasca Fort Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Chief Allan Adam served the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with lawsuit papers...
February 8, 2024
Report on Alberta emission ‘astonishing’ says Athabasca Chipewyan chief
APTN News: When Allan Adam read a joint study from Yale University in the United States and Environment Canada, he says it affirmed everything his community has been finding for years. “We’ve been doing our own community-based monitoring program probably back in 2010, 2009. We do water sampling and everything and stuff like that. We’ve...
February 6, 2024
Indigenous and Environmental Groups Denounce Government Inaction on First Anniversary of Imperial Oil Tailings Disaster
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, KEEPERS OF THE WATER NationTalk: Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – A year ago, news broke that Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine had been leaking toxic industrial wastewater for over nine months while keeping local Indigenous communities in the dark. The public only learned about the leak after a...
January 25, 2024
Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds
Call for companies to ‘clean up their mess’ as Athabasca oil sands emissions vastly exceed industry-reported levels The Guardian: Toxic emissions from the Canadian tar sands – already one of the dirtiest fossil fuels – have been dramatically underestimated, according to a study. Research published in the journal Science found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca...
November 24, 2023
Federal committee forces another round of Kearl questions on Alberta Energy Regulator
Alberta Energy Regulator president and CEO Laurie Pushor answers questions from reporters immediately after testifying before the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development on April 24, 2023. Photo by Natasha Bulowski Listen to article Canada’s National Observer: A federal committee is forcing the president of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to testify for a second...
November 24, 2023
Third Imperial Oil infraction raises Indigenous communities’ environmental alarm bells
Released sentiment due to a culvert collapse causing stress in Fort Chipewyan Aerial photograph from Kearl tarsands site. Photo: Danielle Paradis/APTN APTN News: Athabasca Fort Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam says he’s frustrated again with Imperial Oil Ltd. after learning that the Kearl oilsands facility had an incident where 670,000 litres from a settling...
October 3, 2023
Imperial Oil knew Kearl oilsands was leaking tailings into groundwater for years
Tailings samples are tested in Calgary on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. File photo by The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh Canada’s National Observer: The Canadian Press – Documents filed by Imperial Oil Ltd. show the company and Alberta’s energy regulator knew the Kearl oilsands mine was seeping tailings into groundwater years before a pool of contaminated fluid...
September 13, 2023
‘They’re ramming it down our throats,’ Cold Lake First Nation Chief says of Pathways carbon capture project
Network to transport carbon from oil sands facilities and store it underground CBC Indigenous: The Chief of the Cold Lake First Nation said his community has concerns about a proposed carbon capture and storage network that’s the centrepiece of a plan by major oilsands producers to hit net zero by 2050. The plan by the...
July 5, 2023
Wood Buffalo National Park still on environmental threat list; UNESCO calls for action on oilsands
NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer – A United Nations body has affirmed earlier findings that Canada’s largest national park remains under environmental threats from dams, oilsands development and climate change. The UNESCO report, issued Friday, concludes that the vast Wood Buffalo National Park on the Alberta-Northwest Territories boundary shouldn’t lose its place on the list of World Heritage Sites at this time. Some things in the...
June 5, 2023
The Lie of a Cleaner Oilsands
Pollution protections are stripped while Canada boasts progress. This is the history of promises made and betrayed. The Tyee: In May 2022 a tailings pond at Imperial’s Kearl Lake facility started leaking toxic waste into groundwater and outside its lease boundaries. The foul water, the product of bitumen mining, contained arsenic, sulphates and hydrocarbons and other...
May 4, 2023
Canada opens formal investigation into Imperial’s oilsands tailings leak in northern Alberta
Imperial first found discoloured water seeping from one of its tailings ponds in May CBC News: Federal environmental authorities have launched a formal investigation into a tailings leak at Imperial Oil’s Kearl oilsands mine in northern Alberta. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced Thursday it is investigating a suspected contravention of the Fisheries Act,...
April 27, 2023
Canada oil sands leak heightens First Nations’ calls to clean up tailings
NationTalk: Reuters – In early February, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta started fielding calls from community members after the provincial regulator revealed toxic wastewater had been leaking for months from a tailings pond at Imperial Oil’s (IMO.TO) Kearl oil sands mine. Many in the community hunt and fish downstream of...
April 20, 2023
Oilsands discharge into First Nations water supply latest example of exploitation
Indigenous lands are continuously exploited and delegated as sacrifice zones for the gains of the rich, powerful and white society. Toronto Star: Once again Indigenous communities are bearing the brunt of the corruption, contamination and pollution of their territories by industry. Yet another oilsands corporation has dumped 5.9 million litres of oilsands “overflow” water and mud into...
April 20, 2023
Imperial Oil CEO ‘deeply apologetic’ in Commons committee testimony on oilsands tailings leak
Brad Corson says Imperial is still pumping wastewater into ponds that spilled Imperial Oil president and CEO Brad Corson presented himself as humbled and “deeply apologetic” on Thursday in Ottawa during testimony at a parliamentary committee studying the leak of oilsands wastewater into the northern Alberta ecosystem. In his opening statement, Corson acknowledged his company...
April 19, 2023
Suncor reports release of six million litres of water from settling pond on Fort Hills oil sands mine
The Globe and Mail: Almost six million litres of water with more than twice the legal limit of suspended solids was released from a pond at the Fort Hills oil sands project into the Athabasca River watershed over the weekend, the second large spill in the northern Alberta region this year. The water came from...
April 17, 2023
First Nations blast Alberta Energy Regulator at hearing; minister promises reform
Imperial first detected discoloured water near the oilsands site last May CBC News: Chiefs of First Nations affected by releases of wastewater from an oilsands mine excoriated Alberta’s regulator at a House of Commons committee hearing, calling it a system that serves the industry and not the public. “The [Alberta Energy Regulator] has zero credibility outside...
March 24, 2023
Northern Alberta residents demand answers from Imperial Oil after toxic leak from oilsands project
Imperial Oil v-p faces tough questions from Fort Chipewyan residents over Kearl Lake tailings pond seepage CBC News: There were sharp words and fiery exchanges this week at a town hall meeting between Imperial Oil and residents of Fort Chipewyan, Alta. It was the first time the company met with residents of the community on the western...
March 22, 2023
NWT Indigenous leaders call for investigation of oil sands’ impacts
Leaders of northern Indigenous peoples are calling for a “full, independent investigation” of the downstream impacts of oil sands pollution. CabinRadioThe call, issued at a water summit held in Inuvik last week, comes in the wake of controversy over months-long contamination emanating from Imperial Oil’s Kearl facility in northern Alberta. The Dene Nation, Inuvialuit Regional...
March 15, 2023
First Nations living near Imperial Oil leak refuse to drink water from nearby reservoir
The Globe and Mail: A continuing leak at the Kearl oil sands project has left members of the nearby Mikisew Cree First Nation unwilling to drink or bathe in water from local waterways, fearing contamination from seepage that has lasted close to a year. Ottawa agreed Wednesday to cover the cost of bottled water and...
March 9, 2023
Federal environment minister condemns delayed reporting of oilsands tailings leak
‘Our systems are failing Indigenous peoples, clearly,’ Steven Guilbeault says CBC News: Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Alberta’s silence about an oilsands tailing leak is a troubling failure that suggests the province needs more regulatory oversight. The release of at least 5.3 million litres of toxic tailings from Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine should have been...
March 8, 2023
First Nation slams Premier Danielle Smith for ‘spin’ on huge oilsands project leak: ‘This is basic science’
A project in northern Alberta is under scrutiny after a First Nation raised alarm over a leak that it claims the province and Imperial Oil tried to hide. Toronto Star: EDMONTON—A First Nation in northern Alberta has slammed Premier Danielle Smith for downplaying a massive toxic spill from an oilsands tailings pond that the community is...
March 2, 2023
Alberta First Nation angry at Imperial’s silence while tailings pond leaked for 9 months
Band members have been harvesting food from land adjacent to the spills, chief says CBC News: A northern Alberta Indigenous leader has accused Imperial Oil Ltd. of a nine-month coverup over a massive release of toxic oilsands tailings on land near where his band harvests food. Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation...
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