Oil-soaked ducks may return to wild

EDMONTON—An organization involved in emergency wildlife rescues says some ducks recovered from an oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta can be returned to the wild—if they meet stringent release standards.
Coleen Doucette, of Focus Wildlife, said yesterday the group has been contracted by Syncrude Canada Ltd. to manage the care of birds recovered from the company’s pond where hundreds of ducks perished near Fort McMurray last week.

“We want to help industry become very good at protecting wildlife, that’s what Focus Wildlife Canada’s big goal is here, especially in Alberta with such a growing industry,” Doucette said.
“We want to partner with them so this doesn’t continue happening.”
Doucette said four birds currently being treated in Edmonton are heavily-oiled but in stable condition.
“Because we have coots and mallards, there’s a very good chance they can recover,” she noted. “Different species have different levels of hardiness, these two species are fairly hardy birds, so we feel they have a very good prognosis.”
The birds can be returned to nature if they meet strict release criteria—if not, they will be euthanized, she added.
“They have to be 100 percent waterproof and in very good medical condition,” Doucette stressed. “Absolutely they can survive, we have good success with getting birds back out.”
Syncrude is paying for the rehabilitation work and Doucette expects the bill will be in the “low thousands of dollars.”
She said Alberta does not have the facilities to handle oil-soaked animals that require specialized care, and her for-profit group would like to assist in setting one up in the province.
Syncrude Canada took out full-page advertisements in several daily newspapers on Saturday apologizing for the birds’ deaths and promising to improve operations so it doesn’t reoccur.
Premier Ed Stelmach said the investigation is continuing into what happened.
The apology comes on the heels of another report of migratory birds landing on a wastewater pond in the oilsands of northeastern Alberta.
ConocoPhillips Canada reported Saturday that eight birds, including three loons, had settled on a pond at the company’s Surmont oilsands project northeast of Fort McMurray.
One loon was found dead, but the cause is unclear.
“We are concerned about the loons, and are taking this very seriously,” senior vice-president Matt Fox said in a statement.
“We’re working with the appropriate authorities to manage this situation.”
Greenpeace, who alerted the Conservative government after it got an anonymous tip about the ducks at Syncrude, said it also got a tip about the loons and again informed Alberta Environment.
“While this incident is smaller in size and at a different company’s site, the fact remains this is the second wildlife death in less than a week that has been called in by a tipster rather than government officials,” campaigner Mike Hudema said in a news release yesterday.
“These incidents both illustrate the massive holes in the government’s monitoring and enforcement program,” he charged. “The strategy of having companies report on themselves is clearly not working.”