The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has released new figures tallying the total volume of bitumen emulsion recovered at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) Primrose site in Cold Lake, Alta. The new total — 1,177 cubic metres or 1.1 million litres — is more than a third lower than previously reported amounts.

An earlier incident report from November 14, 2013, states more than 1,878 cubic metres of emulsion was recovered at the four separate release sites, where the mixture of bitumen and water had been leaking uncontrollably into the surrounding environment for several months without explanation. That's enough liquid to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool three-quarters of the way full.

CNRL's July 31, 2013, statement (pdf), released to investors just over one month after the leaks were reported to the AER, said that within the first month of cleanup, 1,000 cubic metres of bitumen emulsion had been collected.

Scientist Kevin Timoney, who's authored several reports on the CNRL leaks, said the reported figures just don't add up.

“The bottom line is, how do you go from essentially 1,900 cubic metres, which is what you get if you listen to the president of CNRL when he was talking in January, down to 1,177 cubic metres. How does that happen?" Timoney said. "And nobody has answered that."

Bob Curran, spokesperson for the AER, told DeSmog Canada the provincial regulator has no ownership of the volume amounts they report to the public and publishes figures given to them by CNRL without verification.

“Those numbers on that site are estimates. They are provided by the company. They are not confirmed AER numbers, nor have they ever been,” he said. “So if the company changes the estimate then we would change a number on the site, until such a time that we arrive at a final number. We haven’t done that in this case so those numbers continue to be estimates supplied by the company.”

Timoney said the U.S. regulator, the Environmental Protection Agency, would never rely on industry for that type of data. "They’d be out there gathering data and determining how much had been spilled and how much had been cleaned up," he said.

When pressed on the disparity between current reported figures and previously reported figures, CNRL spokesperson Zoe Addington said the difference was a matter of “reconciliation.”

CNRL has removed oil, processed water, fresh water, vegetation and soil from the site. Addington was unable to clarify if the decrease in recovered bitumen emulsion volumes was due to an increase in reports of removal of other materials, such as fresh water and vegetation.

A CNRL report states, “Numbers have changed since the last reporting period based on a reconciliation of volumes with the receiving facility.”

Timoney, an ecologist with Treeline Ecological Services who just released a new report this month called CNRL’s Persistent 2013-2014 Bitumen Releases near Cold Lake, Alberta: Facts, Unanswered Questions, and Implications (pdf), said he'd like to see the data.

"Reconciliation is a nice word, but show me the numbers," he said. "I’m a scientist so I really want to see how this comes about."

He said even the AER and CNRL's own figures at times don't match. In mid-January AER published the 1,177 cubic metre volume while CNRL was still posting 1,864 cubic metres.

"Since I can’t get on site and they won’t give me the raw data, I just really have to report what they say and point out when it doesn’t agree," Timoney said.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. images show the continued seepage of bitumen to the surface at location 9-21, the site of a water body now partially drained.

As a scientist, Timoney finds the lack of transparency dangerous, especially to the regulatory process. 

"This is one of the problems with the whole regulatory system, because … AER just simply reports, apparently reports, what industry tells them. They don’t do any checking."

Reproducing industry figures in the name of public disclosure isn't much of a solution, he said. 

"I think the regulator has a responsibility to provide an accurate assessment of the company’s activities. So if the regulator is not verifying information, it’s just simply acting as a clearing house for information industry gives it, it’s not doing its job. It’s not acceptable."

He added: "It’s a problem that’s only gotten worse over the years, in the sense that now AER is basically a non-governmental entity. It’s funded by industry. It’s not an agent of the crown so we don’t have the same sort of access to information we would if they were a government agency. So the AER can basically do whatever it wants to do and the public doesn’t have any recourse. It’s unbelievable, really, when you think about it."

CNRL says cleanup is now complete at three of the terrestrial seepage sites. The final site, 9-21, located beneath a body of water that has since been partially drained, continues to seep bitumen.

According to Addington: “Seepage from the fissures has slowed to an almost imperceptible rate.” CNRL currently reports the rate of seepage for all sites at less than one cubic metre (1,000 litres) per month.

All images courtesy of CNRL.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The ongoing seepage of bitumen emulsion – a mixture of heavy tar sands oil and water – on Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s (CNRL) Cold Lake operations is now reportedly occurring on six sites, up from a previously reported four.

The two new sites were identified by the Cold Lake First Nation, according to a press statement released early Monday.

“Our people want answers and factual information on the contamination of now, six surface releases of bitumen oil,” said Cecil Janvier, Council Member and Media Spokesperson for the Cold Lake First Nation.

The Cold Lake First Nation says they want greater involvement in the ongoing release of oil on their traditional Treaty 6 territory and suggest that they have been left in the dark by CNRL.

High-pressure cyclic steam stimulation or HPCSS is used by CNRL to fracture underground rock and heat up deep reservoirs of bitumen, allowing a resulting mixture of bitumen and water to surface up a wellbore. In CNRL’s current operations several uncontrolled fissures are leaking bitumen above ground, possibly due to unintended fractures below. The company claims the mechanical failure of a wellbore is to blame, although the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) states there is no known cause for the ongoing leakage at this time.

Multiple investigations into the cause of a similar 2009 underground release were inconclusive, although the Energy Resources Conservation Board (now AER) stated “a contributing factor in the release may have been geological weaknesses in combination with stresses induced by high-pressure steam injection.”

The current series of underground leaks have forced more than 1.4 million litres of bitumen emulsion to surface on the ground and in a body of water near the company’s operations. The leaks are still uncontrolled at this time.

“I'm really distressed about the safety of our drinking water, animals, vegetation and how this is affecting the aquifers underneath our Dene lands. Our future generations will not be able to enjoy what once was pristine Denesuline territory. Animals such as wolves and bears are now migrating through our community, which is a safety risk and precaution. The environment is changing and definitely not for the positive,” stated Chief Bernice Martial in the press release.

CNRL investor relations spokesperson Zoe Addington contradicts the Cold Lake First Nation’s claims, saying “there have been no further discoveries of bitumen to surface.”

“Canadian Natural Resources Limited reported that bitumen emulsion was discovered at surface at four separate locations. The discoveries were immediately reported to the Alberta Energy Regulator and concurrently crews were dispatched to initiate necessary action. Each location has been secured and clean-up, recovery and reclamation activities are progressing well. Regular updates can be found on our website at: www.cnrl.com,” she told DeSmog Canada in an email statement.

Currently CNRL is the only body reporting on the rate and volume of the release. The AER, the province’s main oil and gas industry regulator, is reporting CNRL’s figures on its website.

“These numbers are not absolute, they’re not final,” says Bob Curran from the AER, “they may be adjusted as new information comes to light.”

“They’re not indicative of anything except the fact that they’re being updated at this point. I don’t know how much stock you can put into them other than we’re updating information with the information that we’re given as quickly as we can.”

“These aren’t numbers that we’re saying we’ve 100 per cent verified but these are number that are being reported to us. I think there’s an important caveat on that,” he said.

Curran says that it is normal for industry to report its own figures in an instance like this. “We certainly try to verify those figures but yes it’s their facility, it’s their issue that they have to deal with. Our role is to ensure they are responding appropriately.”

The AER has released several updated incident reports on the leakage as part of its larger effort to provide information on “energy-related incidents that may impact the public,” their website states.

The AER first reported on the incident on June 24th, claiming 28 cubic metres of bitumen were released. The most up-to-date figures, released September 6, 2013, claim that more than 1444 cubic metres, or more than 1.4 million litres, of bitumen emulsion have been recovered so far from the uncontrolled seepage. 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.