Million-litre Alberta oilsands wastewater leak kept secret for months:Downstream communities were not notified immediately

THE CANADIAN PRESS , May 22, 2008 -- The Alberta government is downplaying a leak of nearly one-million litres of tainted water into the Athabasca River from a wastewater pond at a Suncor oilsands site near Fort McMurray.

The Liberal opposition says the leak last year was the same volume as an Olympic swimming pool and involved water contaminated with oil and grease that left a sheen on the river.

Liberal environment critic David Swann says downstream communities were not notified for up to eight months after the September leak.

But Environment Minister Rob Renner says the leak did not come from an oilsands tailings pond like the one that killed 500 ducks last month.

Renner says this leak involved wastewater and storm water tainted with some traces of oil.

He suggested the water was not heavily polluted.