DRUMMING UP SUPPORT,

Chantal Chagnon of the Green party, left, along with Treaty Eight member Stephanie Evans, centre, and Miriam Meir of Idle No More protest downtown Thursday to draw attention to the oil spill near Cold Lake.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. says it is “saddened” that animals have died in bitumen leaked to surface from its Primrose thermal oilsands project but adds the danger is over and it is cleaning up.

In an email response to a Herald request for an update, the company said Thursday afternoon that the “deceased wildlife” list so far includes 11 birds, four small mammals and 21 amphibians, while two beavers, a bird and a muskrat are being cared for at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton.

Alberta Environment had reported last week that wildlife had been hurt or killed without giving specific numbers.

Meanwhile, aboriginal and environmental protesters beat drums and chanted outside Canadian Natural’s Calgary head office, then marched to the Alberta Energy Regulator’s offices.

They demanded the company provide more information about the large leak reported June 24 and three smaller ones that were discovered and reported earlier but weren’t announced by the Alberta Energy Regulator until after the larger spill.

“This most recent spill has released and continues to release toxic tarsands onto my community’s traditional homeland,” said Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree, in a news release.

“While the tarsands continue to spill uncontrollably, my community continues to wait for even basic answers from CNRL and the Alberta government.”

She said news the June 24 leak had sullied a slough is heartbreaking because her people rely on clean water to practice traditional hunting.

“These are our homelands but we and the general public are being kept in the dark about these ongoing tarsands spills,” added Jill Janvier with the Cold Lake First Nation.

Mike Hudema, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said the seepage from underground raises questions about the safety of the bitumen recovery process Canadian Natural is using.

“We can’t keep just rolling the dice with the health of our environment or our communities,” he said.

In its email, signed “investor relations,” Canadian Natural did not answer the specific question of whether bitumen emulsion seepage from its underground oilsands operations at the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range. 350 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, had actually stopped.

“The initial impacted area at Primrose was 20.7 hectares,” it stated.

“The sites are controlled and as a result of our successful active cleanup efforts to date, we are now focusing on a reduced area of 13.5 hectares.

“Our ongoing efforts will continue to reduce the impacts until the sites are fully remediated. We have a workforce of over 120 employees and contractors on site, dedicated to the cleanup effort.”

The company initially estimated the spill volume as 175 barrels of bitumen and about 800 barrels of oily vegetation. It has not updated those numbers.

Canadian Natural uses cyclic steam stimulation, sometimes called “huff and puff,” technology to recover bitumen from formations that are about 500 metres deep.

It involves injecting steam underground for a period of time, then reversing the process and pumping up the softened oilsands. The process has been used by many producers in Alberta for about 30 years.

The Alberta Energy Regulator responded to the leak reports last week by ordering Canadian Natural to stop highpressure steaming on part of its Primrose South project and on its entire Primrose East acreage, while restricting steaming on Primrose North.

The company told the Herald later production is not expected to be affected at the 109,000-barrel-per-day project because it had finished steaming and will be in a production cycle for the rest of 2013.