Their submission calls for Ottawa to enforce its fisheries act, which prohibits leaking "deleterious substances" into fish habitats.

Failure to enforce environmental regulations, they argue, is equivalent to a subsidy, which is prohibited under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"The federal government is really doing nothing to clean up the tar sands," Matt Price, policy director with Environmental Defence Canada, told a press conference.

"Instead it's running interference for the sector," he said.

Environmental Defense Canada, Washington-based Natural Resources Defence Council, and three Canadians who live downstream from oil sands development in western Alberta province filed a complaint under NAFTA.

The 1994 trade pact created the largest trading bloc in the world by eliminating import tariffs on goods circulating among partners Canada, the United States and Mexico.

At an estimated 175 billion barrels, the oil sands are the second largest oil reserve in the world.

The environmental groups in their complaint are targeting oil sands tailing ponds that cover 130 square kilometers (50 square miles) in northern Alberta, and contain 720 billion litres (190 billion gallons) of waste water from oil sands projects.

Tailings, consisting of water, sands, silt, clay and residual bitumen, are a byproduct of the oil extraction process.

Constructed from earthen materials, the tailing ponds hold substances harmful to fish, including cyanide, oil and grease, phenols, arsenic, copper and iron.

In a 2009 report, Environmental Defense Canada estimated that four billion litres (one billion gallons) leak from the tailing ponds annually.

The Athabasca River and three creeks were alleged to have been contaminated by tailings from Shell, Syncrude and Suncor mines.

If planned oil sands projects go ahead, the figure could skyrocket to 25 billion litres (6.6 billion gallons) within a decade, said the complainants.

The NAFTA complaint must be supported by two of the three NAFTA partners to proceed, and with Canada expected to vote against it, Price said environmeNtalists' hopes rest with Mexico and the United States to vote for a probe and possible fines.

Price said he hoped to find out within months if the complaint is to proceed. Thereafter, it could take up to three years to resolve.

"We're out of options in trying to get the federal government to adhere to its own environmental laws," he lamented. "This is our last hope."

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