CALGARY — Alberta's energy watchdog has approved plans submitted by two major oilsands players to deal with waste from their projects, but the thumbs-up comes with several conditions.

The decisions on the Syncrude Canada Ltd. (TSX:COS, TSX:IMO, TSX:SU, TSX:NXY) and the Fort Hills Oil Sands Project (TSX:SU, TSX:UTS, TSX:TCK.B) proposals were the first to be made since the watchdog ordered oilsands miners to clean up their tailings ponds last year.

"Over the last 30 years, oilsands operators have set numerous targets for closing their tailings ponds. And historically none of those targets have been met," said Davis Sheremata, a spokesman for the Energy Resources Conservation Board.

That prompted the regulator require oilsands companies to set a firm date to close their tailings ponds, which contain vast amounts of water, clay, sand and bitumen left behind by the extraction process.

"The dates of those plans have to be adhered to, or they'll face enforcement action," Sheremata said. "We've shut oilsands facilities down before, and if we have to we'll do it again."

Tailings are one of the key reasons Alberta's oilsands have been garnering so much negative attention internationally. Syncrude is currently on trial on federal and Alberta environmental charges for the deaths in 2008 of 1,600 ducks that landed on one of its ponds.

The ERCB estimates tailings ponds today contain about 840 million cubic metres of fluid and cover about 170 square kilometres across northern Alberta.

Syncrude's Mildred Lake and Aurora North sites together hold about 505 million cubic metres of tailings. Each of the six ponds are targeted to be returned to a surface solid enough to walk on between 2016 and 2060 under the plan, the ERCB said.

These dates appear to be at odds with Premier Ed Stelmach's call for the ponds to be eliminated within a few years.

Stelmach declined to comment Friday, but on Thursday he said Alberta needs to close the ponds as soon as possible. When pressed for a specific timeline, Stelmach said Alberta just can't talk about closing the ponds, it has to show progress because the ponds are what people around the world see.

"I know that within a matter of a few years we should be able to get there," Stelmach said.

"I want to be realistic in timeline but yet we want to send a clear message that this is the direction we are taking. Lets get it done."

The approval of Syncrude's plan "makes a mockery" of Stelmach's comments, said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema.

"Premier Stelmach's announcement that he'll force the phase-out of wet tailings in a 'few years' is more hot air from a government that won't even enforce its own directives," Hudema said.

The six conditions the ERCB placed on both Syncrude's Mildred Lake and Aurora North sites concern the consortium's plans to separate fine particles of sand and clay -- the component of the tailings mix that takes the longest time to settle -- from the wastewater.

Syncrude spokeswoman Cheryl Robb said the consortium was proud of its proposal, which includes using various technologies to encourage tiny particles to the bottom of the water more quickly.

"In our estimation it was an aggressive plan that we submitted," Robb said. "Some of the requirements the (ERCB) put on are making sure that we hold to that plan."

In its original directive early last year, the energy board set out timelines for companies to start the process. Oilsands miners were to convert at least 20 per cent of the fine particles in their waste water to solid waste by June 2011. That rises to 50 per cent by 2013.

However, the ERCB is allowing Syncrude to only capture 9.3 per cent of the particles next year and 34.6 per cent in 2013.

Joe Obad of the environmental group Water Matters said the ERCB should have rejected Syncrude's proposal outright if it didn't adhere to its rules.

"Alberta often talks about having this world class regulator, but if it's holding the hands of the companies to meet a very clear directive in private, it doesn't offer the transparency that I think most Albertans and Canadians would want out of their regulator," he said.

Sheremata, with the ERCB, said it was virtually impossible for Syncrude, which has been operating since the 1970s, to retool its facilities quickly enough to meet the earlier guidelines, so it was willing to be flexible.

The ERCB also has also imposed two caveats on Fort Hills, a proposed oilsands mine 90 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta., that has yet to be sanctioned by project operator Suncor Energy Inc.

Fort Hills must apply for pilot testing of new tailings pond technologies six months before its project starts up. It must also have no fluid deposits containing clay at the end of the mine's life.

The regulator is still reviewing plans for the Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS)-operated Albian Sands as well as projects operated by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ), Imperial Oil, Shell Canada Ltd. and Suncor.