All Resources

A compendium of work plans to fill information gaps to inform the development of regulatory guidance documents for the safe release of treated oil sands mine waters to the Lower Athabasca River

Description

This document presents work plans to fill six existing information gaps for the development of regulatory guidance documents that describe the conditions under which treated oil sands mine waters... More ≫

Description

This document presents work plans to fill six existing information gaps for the development of regulatory guidance documents that describe the conditions under which treated oil sands mine waters could be safely released to the Lower Athabasca River. For each work plan, context for the information gap being addressed is presented, followed by detailed descriptions of the major tasks and sub-tasks that need to be completed to fill each information gap.

Tags

Synthesis report of the enhanced monitoring program on the Lower Athabasca River 2019-2020

Description

This document summarizes work completed for the Lower Athabasca River enhanced monitoring program for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Data that has been generated from this program to date includes... More ≫

Description

This document summarizes work completed for the Lower Athabasca River enhanced monitoring program for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Data that has been generated from this program to date includes surface water quality, sediment quality, fish health endpoints, and fish communities.

Tags

Summary of enhanced monitoring of the Lower Athabasca River, 2018

Description

Summarizes work completed for the Lower Athabasca River enhanced monitoring program in 2018. Data that has been generated from this program to date includes surface water quality, sediment... More ≫

Description

Summarizes work completed for the Lower Athabasca River enhanced monitoring program in 2018. Data that has been generated from this program to date includes surface water quality, sediment quality, fish health endpoints, and fish communities. These data are provided in appendices at the end of this report.

Tags

A study design for enhanced environmental monitoring of the Lower Athabasca River

Description

Presents an enhanced sampling design for deployment in the Lower Athabasca River. It represents one component of work to describe baseline environmental conditions in the Lower Athabasca River... More ≫

Description

Presents an enhanced sampling design for deployment in the Lower Athabasca River. It represents one component of work to describe baseline environmental conditions in the Lower Athabasca River prior to the potential release of coke slurry-treated oil sands process affected water (OSPW). The document describes sampling locations and sampling frequency to establish a comprehensive description of baseline environmental conditions in surface water chemistry, benthic sediments, benthic algae, benthic macroinvertebrates, and small-bodied fish.

Tags

Ecotoxicity assessment of treated oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) : 2019 toxicity and mesocosms studies

Description

This technical report, compiled by Hatfield Consulting, describes the experimental design used to determine the toxicity of oil sands process-affected water (OSPWW) treated using Syncrude's... More ≫

Description

This technical report, compiled by Hatfield Consulting, describes the experimental design used to determine the toxicity of oil sands process-affected water (OSPWW) treated using Syncrude's coke-slurry treatment process. The three primary components of the study design are: chemical characterization of untreated and treated OSPW; toxicological testing of treated OSPW; and assessment of aquatic invertebrate community mesocosm responses to treated OSPW.

Tags

Assessing toxicity of treated oil sands process-affected water : experimental study design

Description

Describes efforts being taken by provincial regulators (Alberta Environment and Parks and the Alberta Energy Regulator) to gather scientific information to inform future decisions around the... More ≫

Description

Describes efforts being taken by provincial regulators (Alberta Environment and Parks and the Alberta Energy Regulator) to gather scientific information to inform future decisions around the potential for the release of treated oil sands process water into the Lower Athabasca River.

Tags

Surface water quality of Lower Athabasca River tributaries

Description

This study investigates key issues identified in the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring program regarding water quality of tributaries to the lower Athabasca River, specifically: the... More ≫

Description

This study investigates key issues identified in the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring program regarding water quality of tributaries to the lower Athabasca River, specifically: the current state of water quality; the distribution of contaminants; whether the presence of toxic substances is increasing or decreasing, and their rate of change' and whether substances added to the rivers by natural and man-made discharges are likely to cause deterioration of water quality.

Tags

Surface water quality of the Athabasca, Peace and Slave rivers and riverine waterbodies within the Peace-Athabasca delta

Description

This study investigates key issues identified in the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring program regarding water quality of the Lower Athabasca River mainstem and the downstream... More ≫

Description

This study investigates key issues identified in the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring program regarding water quality of the Lower Athabasca River mainstem and the downstream Peace-Athabasca delta, specifically: the current state of water quality; the distribution of contaminants in surface water; and whether substances added to the rivers by natural and man-made discharges are likely to cause deterioration of water quality.

Tags

Regional hydro-climatic and sediment modelling

Description

Reports on the development of an integrated modelling framework established and implemented from April 2012 to March 2015, to provide a comprehensive understanding of hydrology, hydraulics,... More ≫

Description

Reports on the development of an integrated modelling framework established and implemented from April 2012 to March 2015, to provide a comprehensive understanding of hydrology, hydraulics, sediments, and contaminants within the Athabasca River and to inform current and future monitoring efforts. The broad objective of this part of the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring plan was to provide critical knowledge on and improved predictive modelling capability for water availability and sediment/contaminant transport in the lower Athabasca River.

Tags

Aquatic ecosystem health assessment of the Athabasca River mainstem and tributaries using fish health and fish and invertebrate toxicological testing

Description

Results from the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring plan presented here address the need to develop a comprehensive and robust biomonitoring program for fish and toxicity in fish and invertebrates. Fish... More ≫

Description

Results from the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring plan presented here address the need to develop a comprehensive and robust biomonitoring program for fish and toxicity in fish and invertebrates. Fish health monitoring was conducted along the mainstem of the lower Athabasca River and its primary tributaries to assess spatial and temporal change in ecological condition within these aquatic habitats.

Tags