Alberta regulator fines Imperial Oil over tailings leak

(Reuters) - The Alberta Energy Regulator said on Thursday it has imposed an administrative penalty of C$50,000 ($36,764.71) on Imperial Oil over a months-long toxic tailings leak at the oil and gas producer's Kearl oil sands mine.

The AER has also asked the Canadian energy firm to submit two reports to raise awareness about the leaks — the first on seepage mitigation and monitoring and the other on the potential impacts of the release of industrial wastewater.

The toxic tailings water had been seeping for months from the Kearl mine of Imperial — which is majority owned by Exxon Mobil — from May 2022, but it only came to light after the company reported a separate leak in February last year.

The seepage of tailings, a toxic mining by-product containing water, silt, residual bitumen and metals, had angered local indigenous communities, who hunt and fish on the lands downstream from Canada's oil sands mines.

The AER also revealed the first findings of an investigation on the leakage on Thursday and said a shallow subsurface route from on-lease industrial wastewater sources bypassed existing deep groundwater seepage prevention system, which caused the tailings release.

The regulator said no impacts to fish, amphibians or other wildlife have been reported so far and the investigation on the leakage would continue.

($1 = 1.3600 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)