Alberta approves two oilsands tailing pond plans from Syncrude, Fort Hills

CALGARY – The province has conditionally approved two tailing pond plans from oilsands projects at Fort Hills and Syncrude, officials said this morning.

The news comes after recent scrutiny on the operation of such ponds, used to deposit water used in extracting bitumen from the oilsands, following the death of 1,600 ducks on a Syncrude tailing pond two years ago.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board, or ERCB, said this morning that one of the plans approved Friday calls for a 322-million-cubic-metres storage facility at Fort Hills, operated by a consortium including Suncor Energy and UTS Energy. The pond will operate for about 22 years.

Meanwhile, Syncrude’s approved plan includes the return of five ponds at Mildred Lake to "trafficable surface" by 2016, 2020 and 2023. The ponds have a combined capacity of 430 million cubic metres.

Suncrude’s plan also calls for tailing facilities at its Aurora North site 80 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. Syncrde is planning a tailings plant to begin operations in 2014. The plant would convert liquid tailings into solid waste.

The province said Syncrude’s original application, filed last September, were not approved, but the plan has improved significantly through "subsequent consultations," officials said in a release.

The plans are two of six submitted to the ERCB last year. Applications from operators like Albian Sands, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL), Imperial Oil and Shell Canada are still being considered.

On Thursday, Premier Ed Stelmach used Earth Day to demand the elimination of wet tailings ponds within "a few years" because they are a blight on Alberta’s international image."

Currently, four companies operate open pit mines requiring tailings ponds: Syncrude, Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources and Albian Sands Energy (operated by Shell), while a handful of others are planning to add them to their operations.

Oilsands mining companies were issued a new directive last year by the ERCB to clean up tailings ponds and submit plans for how they will do it.

The ERCB order requires operators to prepare tailings plans, report on tailings ponds annually, and reduce fine particles in liquid tailings by 20 per cent by June 30, 2011, and by 50 per cent by 2013.The province has conditionally approved two tailing pond plans from oilsands projects at Fort Hills and Syncrude, officials said this morning.