The Alberta Energy Regulator has laid nine charges against Imperial Oil almost two years after an estimated 5.3 million litres of toxic wastewater spilled from a pond at its Kearl oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray.
The charges include failing to report the spill as soon as the company became aware of it, releasing a substance that had or may have had a major impact on the environment and failing to immediately take all reasonable measures to clean up the spill.
The company is also facing a charge for “causing the loss or damage of public land.”
The charges come after the regulator fined the company $50,000 last year for a previous wastewater release.
In that case, water containing toxic tailings seeped outside of the Kearl lease boundary in 2022, but nearby First Nations weren’t told the seepage included tailings until nine months later when the bigger spill was announced.
Imperial Oil is scheduled to make its first court appearance for the new charges next month in Fort McMurray.
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