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Avatar director James Cameron visits Syncrude oilsands facility
News Articles | Edmonton Journal | Keith Gerein | September 28, 2010
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FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Hollywood director James Cameron, whose blockbuster movie Avatar was a scathing criticism against environmental degradation, toured Syncrude’s oilsands facility in northeastern Alberta Tuesday.
Cameron arrived at the site north of Fort McMurray by helicopter. Accompanied by Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner, the director was shown a reclaimed slough known as Bill’s Lake, then was whisked away to view an in situ operation, in which heat is used to extract bitumen from deep underground.
“When you fly over it, from a distance you see how much of the natural landscape is being affected. So it’s important to understand what the long-term impacts of that are and what the short-term impacts are in terms of health and environment for the First Nations communities,” Cameron said.
Syncrude was convicted this year under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for failing to prevent hazardous substances from coming into contact with wildlife, after the death of 1,603 ducks that landed on the company’s 12-square-kilometre tailings pond near the Aurora mine north of Fort McMurray, on April 28, 2008.
It was also convicted under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act for depositing a harmful substance in waters or an area frequented by migratory birds.
The incident was one of the biggest public humiliations Canada’s oilsands have suffered: the now infamous “duck incident.”
The Syncrude tour comes on the second day of Cameron’s three-day visit to Alberta to learn more about the impact of the oilsands. He also planned to fly north Tuesday to Fort Chipewyan to speak with aboriginal leaders.
Cameron told reporters he was initially surprised at the massive scale of oilsands operations, though he still had much to learn.
“I’m still in sponge mode, finding out how all this works and getting my arms around it conceptually. The reclamation task is on the one hand quite daunting and on the other hand absolutely necessary,” he said.
Fort McMurray is about 430 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
Tagged with: first nations, alberta, avatarsands, edmonton journal
