Alberta isn’t charging oil companies enough money to pay for cleaning up their tailings ponds in the oilsands, say the Alberta Liberals.

The government currently charges three cents per barrel to reclaim land damaged by oilsands operations. The province is almost finished rehabilitating the first tailings pond, which opened in 1967.

“Is this the accepted timeline?” wrote Dave Taylor, deputy leader of the Alberta Liberals in a news release. “Because if it is, many of us won’t be around to see the newer ponds cleaned up.”

The ponds, which are full of toxic sludge left over from oilsands operations, gained notoriety last month when 500 ducks died after landing on one belonging to Syncrude Canada, the oilsands’ largest producer. The ponds are supposed to be equipped with noisemakers meant to scare wildlife away, but the spring placement of the devices on Syncrude’s pond had been delayed by poor weather.

The Liberals are also calling on the government to start a commission to determine whether Albertans are in favour of cleaning up the ponds more quickly. The government assembled a similar task force last year to discuss the issue of affordable housing.

Part of the problem with the system is that the public is shut out of discussions on how much companies must pay to cover environmental reclamation, says Simon Dyer, policy analyst and oilsands expert with the Pembina Institute, a Calgary-based environmental think-tank.

“There is no way for anyone outside of industry or government to have any input on the calculation of those liability bonds,” he says.

The government currently holds a total of $468 million to undertake cleanup for the entire oilsands sector. By comparison, the federal government estimates it will cost $400 million to clean up the Sydney tar ponds, a 31-hectare stretch of polluted water on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

“This issue hasn’t been given the attention it deserves,” Dyer says. (AM)