EDMONTON - After a thorough scrubbing of its oil-saturated feathers with the household dish soap Dawn, the American Coot was given the spa treatment.
At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton, that means a conscientious rinse with a spa-grade nozzle that can flush water between every feather and reach every bit of skin.
The American Coot is among six oil-coated animals that have been rescued from the oil spill at CNRL?s Primose project near Cold Lake that has released 6,000 barrels of bitumen onto the land. The other animals brought to the centre include beaver, muskrats, and ducks.
?If any soap is left on the bird at all, it will have the same effect as the oil in terms of rendering them not waterproof,? said Coleen Doucette of the Oiled Wildlife Society of British Columbia.
CNRL has hired the organization along with American-based International Bird Rescue and the wildlife rehabilitation group to save animals affected by a weeks-long bitumen emulsion seepage at four Primrose sites. Sixteen birds, seven small mammals and 38 amphibians have died, the company has reported.
Workers are scouring the site for oil-affected animals, which are stabilized before they?re sent to Edmonton for cleaning. The animals are often rubbed with a mineral oil to break down the oil before they go through the washomg process.
Michelle Bellizzi, from International Bird Rescue, washed the American Coot while a handler cradled its body and protected its head. The bird was scrubbed with water warmed to match its body temperature and was dipped in one bin of water, then another until the water appeared clear, a sign the oil was removed.
After the rinse, the bird was wrapped in a towel and taken to a heated cage to recuperate.
Bellizzi, a veteran with the bird rescue organization who is based in San Francisco, has worked on sites with hundreds of oil-soaked birds. She said it is unusual to work with the variety of animals that have been affected by the CNRL spill.
?(The beavers?) fur was matted, dull, and they looked like they?d taken a big mud bath,? Bellizzi said. The animals showed signs of having ingested oil and were given a medicine similar to Pepto-Bismol to soothe their gastrointestinal tract before they were put through the wash cycle. The two beavers are starting to thrive, Bellizzi said.
One muskrat has been released after rehabilitation efforts and another muskrat died in care. The rescuers plan to have the rescued animals released close to their original habitat.
A tour of the rehabilitation centre was given the day after CNRL president Steve Laut said the seepage has been caused by ?mechanical failure of well bores in the vicinity of impacted locations.? He said the damage has been contained and the affected area has been reduced from 20 hectare to 13.5 hectares.
It?s an assessment that has earned criticism from organizations such as the Pembina Institute, which noted the Primrose project had a similar spill in 2009.
?They?re characterizing this as a contained incident but what?s happening is that bitumen emulsion is continue to flow to the surface,? said Chris Severson-Baker of the Pembina Institute. ?It?s still escaping from the formation, the formation is still under pressure, it?s still migrating through some unknown path to the surface ... it?s not appropriate to refer to this to contained, it?s out of control and they didn?t put a timeline on when the release would stop or how they?ll address the sub-surface cleanup.?
He noted the province?s energy regulator released a report on the 2009 spill; it ordered CNRL to limit steam injection volumes into its Primrose East site.
?For it to happen again after a thorough investigation really suggests both the company and the regulator don?t know what?s going on or how to prevent it. It calls into question the fundamental design of this project.?
The Primrose project uses high-pressure, high-temperature steam to soften underground bitumen and force it up wells.
With files from Canadian Press
azabjek@edmontonjournal.com
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