Alberta Energy Regulator imposing penalty on Imperial Oil amid ongoing Kearl investigation

On Thursday, the regulator said its investigation found that industrial wastewater bypassed a seepage interception system.

Imperial Oil has been fined $50,000 after the province’s energy regulator concluded the company broke environmental laws when wastewater containing oilsands tailings seeped outside its lease boundary in 2022.

The fine is accompanied by requirements for mitigation plans and research into the environmental effects of such wastewater and represents only the first part of the regulator’s inquiry.

“These findings and resulting compliance and enforcement decisions do not encompass all potential contraventions that may have occurred at Kearl,” the regulator said in a statement. “The investigation remains ongoing.”

Although the fine for two contraventions is the maximum allowed under Alberta law, environmental groups scoffed at its size. Imperial reported $1.1 billion in income in the second quarter of 2024.

In May 2022, Imperial told the regulator that discoloured water had pooled on the surface near the boundary of its Kearl oilsands lease.

Area First Nations were notified but not given further updates until February 2023, when information that the release contained tailings seepage was disclosed along with news of a second release of 5.3 million litres of contaminated wastewater from a holding pond.

Indigenous communities were angered that their members had been harvesting in the area for nine months without being told of possible contamination. So was the Regional Municipality of Fort McMurray and water users as far downstream as the Northwest Territories.

The regulator issued an environmental protection order in March.