Groups demand info on Suncor spill
Contents of wastewater undetermined
EDMONTON — Eleven organizations led by Greenpeace, in a letter sent to the Alberta government Wednesday, demanded to know more about a wastewater spill at a Suncor oilsands plant.
The groups — representing the environment, First Nations and landowner associations — said the province should release more details about the spill, including photographs, “so Albertans can judge for themselves the impact of this spill.”
Suncor has said it doesn’t know exactly what’s in the wastewater or how much of it spilled at its base plant north of Fort McMurray.
“This is all information that Suncor and the Alberta government should know and be immediate public knowledge, but we remain in the dark,” the letter, addressed to Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen. stated.
Suncor has said it discovered Monday that a pipe carrying “process-affected” water had frozen and burst and that it took at least a few hours to shut the line down.
The company later confirmed that some of the liquid ended up in the nearby Athabasca River. Suncor said it doesn’t anticipate there will be any environmental impact because the discharge was diluted with clean water before it got into the river.
The company said Wednesday that it had no updated information to release.
McQueen, in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, said a rush analysis of water samples by an independent lab has been ordered, but cautioned results could still take some time.
“This testing includes both biological and chemical analysis. We will let you know the results of that analysis as soon as they have been reviewed by department experts,” she said.
Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the Council of Canadians and Forest Ethics Advocacy are among the groups that signed the letter.
“We are concerned about the potential impacts the spill will have on our communities, the environment and Alberta’s waterways,” said the letter.
“After 24 hours, we still have no answers as to the chemical composition of what was spilled from the pipe, how much was spilled, how close was the spill to the Athabasca River, how the break was detected and how long the spill happened, nor do we have any pictures of the spill itself.”
Process-affected water is used in the extraction and upgrading process and has not yet been treated, Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said Tuesday.
The spill was reported to the government at about 1 p.m. Monday and stopped about three hours later.
Some of the process-affected water got into a pond of treated water, Seetal said, and the result- ing diluted mix was released into the Athabasca River at an approved discharge point.
Chelsea Flook of the Sierra Club Prairie Chapter said it is unacceptable for Albertans to wait 48 hours for information about what is in their water.
“How can we have an entire system of both industry and the government and nobody knows what was in the pipe or what made its way into the Athabasca? It’s a ridiculous situation,” she said.