Oilsands blamed for waterfowl drop-off

Hunters say pollution forcing migratory birds to change flyway, impacting Cree food source


Darcy Henton, The Edmonton Journal

Published: June 5, 2008

EDMONTON - Fort Chipewyan Cree suspect oilsands pollution may be changing the migration patterns of waterfowl they hunt for food.
They say the numbers of migrating ducks and geese this spring is down significantly, part of a pattern in recent years.

"We're seeing not even half the birds coming through that we normally see," hunter Roy Campbell said Wednesday. "We think the birds see the pollution and are changing their flyway. In my mind, in five or 10 years, there won't be any birds flying through here. They will find an alternate route to get around here."

The issue was raised Tuesday at a meeting with Syncrude officials to discuss the deaths of about 500 ducks that landed in late April on one of the company's toxic tailings ponds.

Lionel Lepine, a land-use co-ordinator with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, downstream from Syncrude, said the duck deaths have been a lightning rod for community frustration over land, water and air pollution from the plants.

Their feelings were clearly expressed to Syncrude officials who came to the community to discuss the incident.

"A lot of anger came from the community," Lepine said. "There's a lot of anger and frustration over what is happening with our water and animals, and the companies are listening."

He said residents want to know what the company is planning to do to prevent similar incidents from occurring and to protect traditional Cree lands, but didn't get anything beyond assurances it won't happen again.

"They come up here with these Band-Aid solutions and expect us to be happy when they leave," he said. "But when they leave we're even more frustrated because we never seem to get the answers we're looking for."
Cree elder Charlie Mercredi said he wasn't convinced anything will change.

"There were people who were really mad," he said. "Syncrude says they will look after it, but I don't know if things will really improve. We will have to see it first."

Syncrude spokesman Alain Moore said the company's vice-president of production, Marc Theriault, attended the meeting to address the concerns.

"We had an opportunity to convey to the community how badly we feel over what happened and to resolve to put in proper steps to prevent it from happening again," he said.

Moore said Syncrude can't detail its planned actions because the investigation into the incident is ongoing, but "we definitely recognize we need to make appropriate changes."

He said the company appreciated the input from residents and took no issue with the tone of the meeting.

"Their feedback was frank and candid," he said "We definitely know how important wildlife is to their community and they made those feelings quite clear to everyone. It was open and candid, but quite civil."

Campbell said community members who worked for Syncrude related stories at the meeting of seeing deer and beaver in the toxic ponds.
He said when he told the stories to his family after the meeting, his nine-year-old son begged him to stop hunting wild game for food.

"My son jumped up and asked: 'Dad, are we all going to die? Is pollution going to kill us?' He got all afraid. I found it very difficult to explain to him."

Lepine said community members are also upset that Canadians appear more concerned about the 500 ducks that died than they are about community claims that oilsands pollution may be linked to the community's high rate of rare cancers.

"Some ducks died and it's nationwide news," he said.

"In the meantime, we're dying up here and it's not being recognized by the world."

The provincial government recently committed to conducting some studies of the health of local residents to test claims that the incidence of cancer may be linked to oilsands production.

The story about the ducks made international headlines after an anonymous caller tipped off provincial officials about the incident on April 28.

The company said it usually deploys noisy sonic canons to divert ducks away from the pond, 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, but a late spring snowstorm hindered their deployment.

dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourna...e-1d111f6ecd39