Of Ducks and Death

Just when a decision was made finding Syncrude responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,600 ducks in April 2008, the company finds itself under the lens once again only five days after the decision was handed down. On October 27, another Syncrude tailings pond dealt a death blow to 230 ducks in the Athabasca oil-sands production area of Alberta.

This is a shameful event, and in the least, incredibly bad timing for Syncrude.

From a Public Relations POV, Syncrude's CEO, Scott Sullivan, has reacted by holding a news conference and issuing a statement regarding the tragedy. He also revealed the unfortunate news that the death toll would likely rise, (as he himself updated the number of birds euthanized to 330) saying, "I think we need to engage the scientific community and we need to understand what role weather played in this event, and any other factors that made this different." – Syncrude has claimed that an occurrence of freezing rain in the area forced the ducks to land in order to avoid the poor flying conditions.

Sullivan's admission that there is a need to engage the scientific community so events like this are not repeated is appropriate, but I would like to know the level of involvement science played in determining Syncrude's existing barriers. Other companies have had success in preventing this from happening. The question now for Syncrude is whether or not its deterrent methods were being properly deployed.

If Sullivan is going to be as forthcoming as he says he will be about revealing where Syncrude can improve, maybe ducks won't need to die such horrible deaths in the future. Due to society's thirst for fuel, it's an unfortunate reality that oil sand extraction in Alberta isn't leaving any time soon.