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Canada’s energy sector has several formidable issues to deal with, but two of the trickiest surround pipeline leaks and how to deal with tailings ponds in the oilsands.

On Thursday, the Alberta Energy Regulator took a stab at tackling both hot potatoes.

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It put out new guidelines for how oilsands producers in northern Alberta should manage their tailings ponds.

Separately, it issued an advisory admonishing companies for faulty leak detection within their pipeline systems that handle oil well effluent and produced water; in some cases, leaks weren’t recognized for several days.

Tailings ponds have been one of the biggest public relations problems for the sector, viewed as an eyesore in the Athabasca region and a potential threat to groundwater.

These man-made ponds contain byproduct created in the process of extracting tar-like bitumen from the sand. The province has 25 ponds covering about 220 square kilometres and the number is expected to keep growing.

In 2008, these pools — holding residual bitumen, water, sand and fine clays — became a lightning rod for criticism after 1,600 birds landed in Syncrude’s pond during a storm.

Images of oil-soaked ducks soon circulated around the world. It was one of several pivotal moments that focused attention on what the Alberta government was — and wasn’t — doing to oversee oilsands development.