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An ExxonMobil subsidiary knew that one of its oil sands mines was leaking
toxic wastewater, but it hid the leak from downstream Indigenous
communities for almost a year.

Act now to shut down this unethical and dangerous company’s toxic oil
sands mine!

[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 

   
John,

For nearly a year, dangerous levels of arsenic and other heavy metals have
been seeping out of four tailings ponds at the Kearl oil sands project,
and into the groundwater and waterways that sustain Indigenous communities
and wildlife in northern Alberta, Canada.

For nearly a year, ExxonMobil subsidiary Imperial Oil and the Alberta
Energy Regulator (AER) knew about the toxic seepage, and did not inform
Indigenous communities about the severity of the problem.

So for nearly a year, Indigenous communities unknowingly consumed game,
fish, and plants from land and water that could have been contaminated
with toxic wastewater.

It is clear that as long as the Kearl oil sands project continues to
operate, and continues to fill leaking tailings ponds with arsenic-laden
water, the people and wildlife living in the area won’t be safe.

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition to demand that government officials shut down the
dangerous Kearl oil sands project now!

The only reason that Indigenous communities of Fort Chipewyan were
informed about the tailings ponds seepage is because one of the ponds
overflowed last month and spilled two Olympic swimming pools worth of
industrial wastewater onto Crown lands.

Built on porous land, the ability of the tailings ponds to contain the
wastewater was always an uncertainty. And now that the worst case scenario
has happened, Imperial isn’t even sure what exactly is causing the
problems. So their current solution is to collect the arsenic-laced water
after it leaks out of the ponds, and then put it back into the ponds until
they figure out a better solution.

And meanwhile, since the oil sands mine is still operating as if nothing
is wrong, toxic wastewater is continuing to be added to the increasingly
unstable tailings ponds.

No matter what Imperial Oil says it will do to contain the mining
wastewater and stop this from happening again, there is no getting around
the fact that the structure of the tailings ponds isn’t sound and never
will be. That is why the only way to stop the mine from continuing to
contaminate the area’s water, and to ensure that it never happens again,
is to shut down the mine for good.

[ [link removed] ]Act now to help the Indigenous communities of Fort Chipewyan protect
their water supply from Imperial Oil’s toxic wastewater.

Imperial Oil is the second largest integrated oil company in Canada, and
it is owned by ExxonMobil – one of the world’s largest publicly traded oil
and gas companies. It is incredibly powerful, which is probably why AER
has let it get away with such dangerous and unethical management of the
Kearl project.

But if enough Ekō members like you speak out, we can help create enough
public pressure in Canada and around the world that the AER will be forced
to shut down the mine.



[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 



Thanks for all that you do,
Lacey and the team at Ekō


More information:

[ [link removed] ]Alberta First Nation angry at Imperial's silence while tailings pond
leaked for 9 months
CBC. 2 March, 2023

[ [link removed] ]Imperial Oil's tailings leaks put polluting corporations in MPs’
crosshairs
Yahoo News. 11 March, 2023

 

 

Ekō is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

Please help keep Ekō strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]