Environmental protection order: Updates on Imperial’s actions

April 2024 – Imperial continues monitoring and assessment at Kearl site

Imperial continues to provide regular updates on work underway at its Kearl oil sands facility to address seepage of industrial wastewater from its operating lease area. The company has now completed its winter drilling program, more than tripling total number of pumping and monitoring wells as part of plans to expand the system and prevent further offsite migration of impacted water. 

Current status:

• Mitigations in place, monitoring and assessment ongoing
• Winter drilling work completed to install remaining pumping and monitoring wells
• Data continues to show mitigations are working, reviewed by third-parties
• Seepage has not reached any waterways, including Firebag River
• No indication of adverse impacts to local wildlife or fish populations
• Data and monitoring reports regularly to communities

The focus of our mitigation work has been on expanding and improving our seepage interception system and our monitoring network. We have installed interception trenches and sumps along with a wellpoint vacuum system and we have added liners to on-site ditches.

Data shows that the mitigations are working as intended and preventing further off-site migration of impacted water at those locations. Monitoring of these mitigations and water sampling is ongoing. Additional run time and data will be used to enhance the mitigations if necessary. A winter drilling program is underway to install additional pumping and monitoring wells.

During the winter months, drilling work was completed to install an additional 24 pumping wells, doubling the network. As well, another 274 monitoring wells were installed, bringing the total monitoring network to more than 500 locations.

Enhanced water and wildlife monitoring continues in the area and fencing around infrastructure remains in place to prevent access. To date, there is no indication of adverse impacts to wildlife or fish populations in nearby river systems, or risks to drinking water for local communities.

Imperial is also supporting independent testing and site tours for local Indigenous communities and is providing opportunities for input into our approach to environmental monitoring activities. Indigenous communities are also conducting independent technical reviews of the company’s mitigation and monitoring plans. Community notification protocols have also been updated to ensure communities are informed early and through multiple channels.

The company also continues to provide information to regulatory officials from the Alberta Energy Regulator and government departments and has been hosting regular site tours by officials. Imperial provides monitoring data/reports to the Alberta Energy Regulator every two weeks, which are also shared with communities.

See previous updates.