Imperial Oil's plan for Kearl mine waste OK'd
Last Updated: Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 8:42 AM MT
The Canadian Press
Alberta's energy regulator has approved Imperial Oil Ltd.'s plan to deal with waste from its Kearl oilsands mine, but the nod comes with some conditions.
Last year, the province's Energy Resources Conservation Board, known as the ERCB, ordered oilsands mine companies to clean up their tailings ponds — enormous lakes of water, sand, clay and bitumen left behind from the oilsands extraction process.
Imperial has said it would not be able to meet the ERCB targets for the first six years of operations at the Kearl project because it needs time to work on new technology.
The ERCB ordered Imperial to submit a new plan by January 2012 outlining how it can speed up tailings reduction. It must also go above and beyond the ERCB requirements after 2018 to make up for the delay.
Kearl is the fourth such plan to be approved, after projects from Suncor Energy Ltd., Syncrude Canada Ltd. and the Fort Hills partnership.
The ERCB is still evaluating a submissions from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and two more from Shell Canada Ltd.
Tailings ponds gained worldwide notoriety in 2008 when 1,600 waterfowl died after landing on a giant lake at Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s oilsands mine.
The ERCB estimates tailings ponds today contain some 840 million cubic metres of waste and cover a combined total of about 170 square kilometres.
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