Suncor to face environmental charges next month

The company, Canada's No. 2 oil sands producer, said it will enter a plea to the charge laid last year for exceeding waste-water discharge limits into the Athabasca River, which flows alongside its operations near Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.

Suncor said the charge was laid after a subcontractor who ran water treatment facilities at two work camps discharged untreated wastewater into the Athabasca. The subcontractor has already pleaded guilty to similar charges.

"We did not meet the standards set by the province or the expectations we have of ourselves," Rick George, Suncor's chief executive, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the company said it will not disclose how it intends to plead.

When it goes to court on April 2, the company will also answer to two other charges of contravening hydrogen-sulfide emission limits at its Firebag thermal oil sands operations in 2007.

Suncor was forced to limit production at its Firebag site and build a C$340 million ($266 million) sulfur plant to cut the emissions. The production limits were lifted last August.

Suncor shares rose 11 Canadian cents to C$32.38 late on Friday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$1.27 Canadian)

(Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Peter Galloway)