When a bird is detected within three kilometres of the tailings pond, the BirdAvert system activates several deterrents.
Northern Alberta may now be best known for the basin of crude sitting in sandy deposits below the soil, but the development of the province’s unconventional oil deposits has spawned an even more unconventional side industry: Duck hazing.
Countless birds are killed annually by hunting, hitting windows and wind turbines — the latter dubbed the “Cuisinarts of the Air.” Toronto’s habit of keeping its office towers lit at night kills about 14,000 birds a year.
Yet the image of ducks soaked in oil has become indelibly connected with the evils of the energy industry, as potent a symbol as a polar bear on a melting Arctic icefloe.
The dead birds also have real costs for oil companies, not just in fines, but as bad PR.
“A person who buys a hunting licence kills more birds than we do every year,” said Calvin Duane, manager of environment for Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNR).
“We will spend millions to not kill any ducks.”
Each dead duck has to be reported to the provincial government.
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Alberta oil companies move markets and fuel nations, but need to spend millions to outsmart ducks,
Having been to the oilsands mines and production facilities I can testify to the extent of the efforts to keep wildlife away from the tailing ponds. At Syncrude it sounds like fire crackers going off day and night. At CNRL they have the same approach but they have several canons that fire regularly as well. I read somewhere that those cannons are so loud that you have to wear double hearing protection before you can get within 250 feet of them. Anything closer than 150 feet and they have to shut the cannons off as hearing damage will occur even if you have ear plugs and ear muffs on. When I was there the booms were uncomfortable and I was over half a mile away from the cannons.
What get’s my dander up is this:
“Mr. Boag suggested the costs of failure are far higher than the price of deterrence. He figures the oil companies value each dead duck at $1-million.”
Million dollar ducks! Who knew?
I wonder what we could get for a moose?
“Billion dollar Meece”. Imagine that.
“Trillion dollar” Jack Russell Terriers!
Canada is so rich in natural resources we can pave our streets in gold (LOL).
Ducks?
“Meh”.
I hope everyone in Canada has a fine Dominion Day today and same to the US on July 4th (if they can get their lights turned back on). I expect they will.
So the environmentalists are in a tither over some dead ducks because of the tar sands project? Wind turbines are somehow different? An inconvenient truth.
http://bit.ly/LWC1qG
And people wonder why the cost of a gallon of gas is so high!!!
IDIOTS!!