It’s safe to say Imperial Oil boss Brad Corson took it on the chin Thursday after he was grilled and publicly shamed in Ottawa over tailings leaks at its flagship Kearl oil stands mine north of Fort McMurray. .But the House of Commons standing committee on environment and sustainability is no ordinary kangaroo court, not when it’s an all-party body open to MPs..Instead Corson was forced to publicly apologize for failing to disclose the spillage of some 5.3 million litres of tailings water into a nearby duck slough. Not only did the company fail to inform the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), it also failed to notify local communities for more than nine months after the fact..“We have broken trust with these incidents,” he said in his opening statements, after giving a traditional land acknowledgement. “We profoundly regret this incident … it never should have happened.”.But that was about the only thing newsworthy he had to say, offering little in the way of an explanation for how the events actually occurred. He agreed the incident damaged the credibility of his company and the entire industry and even the AER whose CEO, Laurie Pushor, appears before the panel on Monday.. Kearl LakeCourtesy Imperial .Seepage from the site was first noticed last May but wasn’t reported until Feb. 7 of this year after the AER issued an environmental protection order in relation to a second, larger incident. The federal fisheries department followed up with its own order on March 10..Under federal rules, Imperial was to notify regulatory authorities within 24 hours of a spill. There was suggestions the government of the Northwest Territories should have also been notified since it has a joint watershed management agreement with Alberta..In a news release, Imperial said work to clean up the site was completed on April 12 with no damage to fish and wildlife and drinking water supplies, although further testing revealed levels of chemicals associated with oil sands production had been found in adjacent water and soil samples. .Imperial’s investigation determined measurement equipment was not providing accurate pond level information to the central control room. Because the equipment was not accurately reading the pond level, a normally automatic pump was in a manual operation mode and was not activated to pump down the level of water..The pond collects water from surface water drainage systems and the seepage interception system, which is primarily natural groundwater and precipitation, with a small amount of industrial wastewater. It also receives water, silt and sediment from the surrounding area, which accumulates over time. There was a gradual buildup in sediment materials, which impacted accurate measurement of the pond level, the company said..In questioning, Corson confirmed Imperial resumed pumping operations at the site..Since the the enforcement order, a similar situation has been uncovered at Suncor Energy’s nearby Fort Hills mine. .Despite his reticence, Imperial’s troubles tarnished the entire industry and gave Alberta a black eye at a time when the province is desperately trying to convince the federal government and other provinces that it's capable of producing clean, environmentally responsible oil..Greenpeace only rubbed it in by flashing a banner over the the entrance of the Supreme Court building that read “Charge Imperial Now!” .The humiliation only deepened after Green Party leader Elizabeth May — who isn’t known to be sympathetic to Alberta or have anything particularly useful to say apart from partisan rhetoric — reportedly asked Corson: “How do you sleep at night?”.Ouch.
