Canadian oil province Alberta has ordered oil sands operators to better clean up tailings ponds believed to still be seeping toxins into ground water that people and animals drink.

The ponds, some say lakes, are a by-product of upgraders’s conversion of sticky bitumen into crude. Alberta struggles with some 750 million cubic metres of fine tailings in need of treatment.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board has given copmanies until 30 September 2009 to submit their plans for cleaning up the ponds. Companies will have to treat talings water and dispose of sludge as environmentally as possible, which could mean back into the formation from which they came.

The goal in this Part 1 programme is “trafficable” land that nature can reclaim.

Forced plant closures and turned-down permits could lie on the enforcement side of Directive 74, a draft regulation of which appeared six months ago. To avoid problems, companies will have to submit yearly tailings plans.