DrCaleb DrCaleb:
ASLplease ASLplease:
just curious, what happened to ducks when they land on tailings ponds for the pulp and paper industry or a gold mine? isnt the tailings pond of a goldmine full or arsenic?
Yes, but tailings ponds are a mix of ionized clay particles and light oil and other elements. Downwind, a foam forms from the water splashing into the pond. The surface tension of the pond isn't right to support waterfoul floating on it. They get bogged in the oil, and can't swim.
Waterfowl natural repel water, but not oil. The oil interferes with their natural insulation by matting their feather structure and impairs their ability to fly. In response, the ducks constantly groom and end up ingesting the oil. Most of the time they make it to shore and freeze to death.
Oil sands tailings ponds a re a lot different than mining tailings ponds. They're a lot bigger to start with (more like lakes than ponds). And typically mining tailings ponds don't have much oil in them--the concern is more with solubilzed components like dissolved metals.
Bird deterrance is a black art at best. You'd think there'd be an easy solution to deter birds, but there isn't. In a deal with prosecutors due to the last oil sands tailings bird kill, Syncrude gave U of A a $1.3 mil grant to figure out better ways to deter birds.
Won't do much for Stelmach's charm campaign. This is one of the rare times I actually agree with a comment by Greenpeace:
$1:
"The Alberta government doesn't have a public relations problem, it has an environmental impact problem," said [Greenpeace's] Hudema.