Environmental Performance

An important part of Syncrude’s sustainability challenge is continuously improving our environmental performance. Toward this, we are implementing short- and long-term measures in all areas of our operation that will lead to more environmentally sustainable outcomes and meet the expectations of regulators, employees and community stakeholders.

Each year, Syncrude conducts six manual surveys of its main stack to meet the requirements of Alberta Environment’s Alberta Stack Sampling Code. Alberta Environment is invited to witness these surveys for verification purposes.

All ambient air quality monitoring data we report is gathered and verified by the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association, which posts all ambient air quality data, including real-time and historical information, on its website, www.wbea.org. Similarly, all water quality monitoring is conducted by the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, which posts information at www.ramp-alberta.org. These are independent multi-party organizations that include oil sands operators, First Nations, environmental groups and regulators.

All Syncrude meters used for regulatory reporting are calibrated on regular basis, and also are manually tested to ensure valid results.

Syncrude surpasses the quality assurance requirements of Alberta Environment’s code for Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems. This code applies to emissions stemming from Syncrude’s main stack and the Aurora gas turbine generator.