Report: Tar Sands To Threaten Over 160 Million Bird Within The Next 3 To 5 Decades

Toronto, Ontario (AHN) - A report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Boreal Songbird Initiative in the U.S. and the Pembina Institute in Canada warned 160 million birds could face extinction within the next 3 to 5 decades due to Canada's tar sands projects.

The development of Canadian provinces with identified large deposits of oil buried beneath sands will result in the disappearance of natural habitats of winged creatures and deaths as the birds drown in tailing ponds.

A preview of this environmental nightmare occurred in April when 500 mallards landed in a Syncrude Canada tailings pond near Fort McMurray in Alberta resulting to the birds' death.

While the report said accidental drowning in ponds will have minimal effects with an estimated 8,000 to 300,000 victims, the larger threat comes from the oil sands ventures eating into the natural habitats of birds and displacing from 6 million up to 166 million birds covering 30 to 50 years.

The known oil sands fields are found in the boreal forest, a large patch of wilderness that stretches across northern Canada. About half of all birds in the U.S. live in boreal forests and depend on its resources for their survival. There are about 500 birds of various species for every 2.5 square kilometers of boreal forest land.

The destructive nature of bitumen sourced from tar was shown two weeks ago when 15,000 liters of molten tar spilled into a Brampton storm sewer as a result of a failed roofing job at a shopping mall. Up to six blocks of the liquid tar had already spread along the city streets when emergency workers managed to stop it from further damaging the roads by pouring a truckload of sand through a manhole to prevent the tar from reaching a nearby creek.

According to Gary Jarrett, assistant division fire chief of the Brampton Fire and Emergency Services, while the tar is not considered a health hazard, it is nevertheless a nuisance because it quickly solidified in the sewer pipes and clogged the storm drains in the vicinity near North Park Drive and Dixie Road.

Ontario's Ministry of the Environment ordered the roofing company and its subcontractor to pay for the cleanup cost.