Oil company Syncrude Canada has been found guilty by a Canadian court of killing 1,600 ducks two years ago by allowing the birds to land on a toxic pond filled with oilsands waste in April 2008. A judge determined Syncrude was liable for the deaths because it had reduced efforts to deter wildlife away from the four-and-a-half square mile pond consisting of clay, water, sand, hydrocarbons and heavy metals that are left over when extracting oil from sandy deposits at its Aurora mine site.
The company says it has beefed up its deterrent system since the 2008 accident by adding staff and a radar system to alert birds they are approaching the area.
Syncrude faces fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for its mistake.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Guilty Verdict in Duck Deaths (by Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald)
Syncrude Guilty in Toxic Duck Deaths (by Alyssa Noel, QMI Agency)
Syncrude Faces Scrutiny after Ducks Land on Toxic Pond (by Hanneke Brooymans and Jim Farrell, Canwest News Service)
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