According to a new study, regardless of noise cannons, tens of thousands of birds are landing on tailings ponds, but very few are dying.
The results from a joint monitoring program by industry, government and the University of Alberta found that the birds only die when they come in contact with residual bitumen.
The study was ordered by the court after convicting Syncrude in 2008 for an incident that saw 16-hundred birds die on a tailings pond.
The study was designed by the university in collaboration with 5 oilsands companies
Over the past two years, in the Spring and Fall, observers would visit all 53 tailings ponds daily.
In a season, 20,540 water birds landed on the ponds but only 139 bird were found dead, which is less than a percent.
U of A Biologist Colleen St. Clair says the info will help provide answers to better protect wildlife around the ponds.
She says it might be a good idea for oil sands companies to use visual signals such as lasers to detere birds, as they rely on visual information.
The study also tested 2 groups of domestic ducks.
One group drank, ate and swam in older tailings pond water where the toxic bitumen had mostly settled out, and the other group lived in tap water.
Preliminary toxicology results show no differences between the two groups.
St. Clair says science can play an important part in recognizing a plan that balance the needs of industry and the environment.
