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Over the decades, Ruth Kleinbub has nursed dozens of wounded snowy owls back to health. Injured diving ducks have splashed around in her bathtub.
In the same vein, the 56-year-old environmentalist, conservationist and bird enthusiast from Fort McMurray, Alta., has been trying – without much success – to direct Canadians' attention to what she says are hundreds of birds that die every year at heavy oil plants in Alberta and the tailings ponds that come with them.
“There are times when I've felt like a broken record,” Ms. Kleinbub, a director of the Federation of Alberta Naturalists, conceded.
Then on Monday, a flock of more than 500 mallards landed on a Syncrude tailings pond, which sits along a major flyway for migrating waterfowl.
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Only five were rescued. Two of those have since died, an Alberta Environment spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.
In a matter of hours, images of dead ducks smothered in oil made news around the world.
The stories have shone a harsh light on Alberta's oil sands, and sparked public furor – something Ms. Kleinbub said she's worked so hard to do herself since 1988.
The incident, according to one expert, has also played a part in temporarily derailing a $25-million, three-year public relations campaign the Alberta government recently launched to “brand” Alberta and persuade domestic and international critics that production in the province's oil sands is environmentally friendly.
“No one likes to see oil-soaked ducks or birds on the front page of the paper; not people who love animals, not the people who own the company that's responsible. It's a no-win situation,” said Joseph Doucet, a professor of business and energy policy at the University of Alberta.
“I certainly think this is going to make it difficult for the producers and the provincial and the Canadian government to market Canada as both an energy producer and relatively environmentally friendly.”
In a public statement, Syncrude president and CEO Tom Katinas said the company is investigating the factors that led to the ducks' deaths, and offered a “heartfelt and sincere apology.” A spokesman for Syncrude did not return a call seeking comment.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week called Monday's deaths “a terrible tragedy” that has marred Canada's image around the world. He also pledged that his government will work to ensure the heavy-oil industry meets its existing obligations and any new rules.
Tom Olsen, a spokesman for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, said the Premier is taking the ducks' deaths seriously and, in fact, “welcomes the attention because what this allows him and Alberta to do is demonstrate to the world how seriously we take an incident like this.”
The Premier is adamant about refuting what he has called “mythology about the practices in the oil sands, about the practices of Alberta,” Mr. Olsen said. “The Premier has said he is not going to leave the reputation of Alberta to the likes of the Greenpeaces and the Sierra Clubs.”
But Mark Hudema, an oil-sands campaigner with Greenpeace, said the world has finally been given a glimpse into the impact of the tailings ponds.
