Suncor Energy - Environmental Record

Environmental Record

Suncor operates four wind farms. These provide 147 megawatts of power per year, a CO2 offset of 284,000 tonnes compared to coal-generated electricity. Suncor's ethanol facility in St. Clair, Ontario produces 200 million litres of ethanol per year. This ethanol is blended into retail gasoline products sold at Sunoco and some Petro-Canada service stations. According to a Pollution Watch fact sheet, in 2007 Suncor Energy's oil sands operations had the sixth highest greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. While Suncor has reduced the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of its oil sands operations by more than 50% since 1990, total greenhouse gas emissions from the company's operations have increased because of growing oil sands production.

On April 2, 2009, Suncor was fined $675,000 for failing to install pollution control equipment at its Firebag operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta in July 2006. On the same day, Suncor was fined $175,000 for dumping untreated wastewater from a company work camp near Fort McMurray into the Athabasca River in 2007.

In the United States, Suncor has also been fined by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In April 2012, a fine of $2.2 million was assessed for air pollution. Suncor failed to monitor and control emissions a number of times throughout 2009 and 2010, and numerous emissions exceeded regulations. Suncor was also cited for "failure to conduct equipment inspections, train employees, and fully develop standard procedures for operating equipment". Additionally, a benzene leak into Sand Creek was discovered in the fall of 2011. Employees at Suncor and the nearby Metro Wastewater Reclamation District Plant were exposed to benzene through the air and through drinking water. Cleanup efforts and the extent of the environmental consequences have remained largely undisclosed to the public and community around Sand Creek.

Suncor is working to reduce the amount of bitumen entering tailings ponds. Under the auspices of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Suncor has teamed with the University of Alberta and Matrikon, an Edmonton-based software company, to develop new separation-cell technology that could reduce the amount of bitumen entering tailings ponds by 50 per cent.