Early chemical and toxicological risk characterization of inorganic constituents in surface water from the Canadian oil sands first large-scale end pit lake

White, Kevin Bradley; Liber, Karsten

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.07.059

Cited by 40 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The geochemical properties of BML surface water are presented in Table 2. BML surface water is alkaline with a high buffering capacity (623.7 ± 12.5 mg/L as CaCO 3 ), which is consistent with the findings of previous work (White and Liber 2018). Sodium is the most abundant cation at a concentration of 550.2 ± 22.2 mg/L, and chloride and sulfate are the predominant anion species at concentrations of 403.1 ± 2.5 mg/L and 174.0 ± 0.4 mg/L, respectively.…”

Section: Initial Materials Characterizationsupporting

confidence: 91%

Effects of Calcium and Aluminum on Particle Settling in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake

2021

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Surface mining of oil sands ore in Alberta, Canada has generated fluid fine tailings (FFT) that must be reclaimed. End pit lakes (EPLs), which consist of thick deposits of FFT capped with water, have been proposed for FFT reclamation, and Base Mine Lake (BML) is the first full-scale demonstration EPL. However, FFT particle settling and resuspension contributes to high turbidity in the BML water cap, which may be detrimental to the development of an aquatic ecosystem. This study investigated the effect of Ca and Al treatments on turbidity mitigation. The initial turbidity was reduced from 20 NTU to less than 2 NTU in BML surface water treated with 54 mg/L of Ca or 1.1 mg/L of Al. At a concentration of 1.1 mg/L, Al reduced the initial turbidity to a greater extent, and in a shorter time, than 54 mg/L of Ca. Further, resuspended Al-treated FFT particles were 100–700 nm larger in diameter, and thus resettled faster than the resuspended untreated or Ca-treated FFT particles. The final turbidity values 21 days after resuspension of untreated and 1.7 mg/L Al-treated FFT particles in fresh BML surface water were 20.5 NTU and 2.5 NTU, respectively. Thus, Al treatment may be effective in mitigating turbidity in BML through both Al-induced coagulation and self-weight settling of the resuspended Al-treated FFT particles.

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Section: Initial Materials Characterizationsupporting

confidence: 91%

Effects of Calcium and Aluminum on Particle Settling in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake

2021

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“…The Base Mine Lake water cap exhibits specific conditions of an ammonia-rich and labile organic matter-limited environment (Foght et al, 2017), creating a niche capable of supporting the novel potential AOB group MBAE14, in the hypolimnetic and the FFT-water interface zones (Figures 2, 3 and Supplementary Table S2). While the Base Mine Lake water cap is characterized as brackish (approximately 400 mg/L chloride; White and Liber, 2018), the bacterial groups related to BML MBAE14 (Oceanospirillales and Marinobacter spp.) were previously reported only in marine environments (Gauthier et al, 1992; Cappello and Yakimov, 2010; Satomi and Fujii, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putative Mixotrophic Nitrifying-Denitrifying Gammaproteobacteria Implicated in Nitrogen Cycling Within the Ammonia/Oxygen Transition Zone of an Oil Sands Pit Lake

et al. 2019

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Anthropogenically-impacted environments offer the opportunity to discover novel microbial species and metabolisms, which may be undetectable in natural systems. Here, a combined metagenomic and geochemical study in Base Mine Lake, Alberta, Canada, which is the only oil sands end pit lake to date, revealed that nitrification was performed by members from Nitrosomonadaceae, Chloroflexi and unclassified Gammaproteobacteria “MBAE14.” While Nitrosomonadaceae and Chloroflexi groups were relatively abundant in the upper oxygenated zones, MBAE14 dominated the hypoxic hypolimnetic zones (approximately 30% of total microbial communities); MBAE14 was not detected in the underlying anoxic tailings. Replication rate analyses indicate that MBAE14 grew in metalimnetic and hypolimnetic water cap regions, most actively at the metalimnetic, ammonia/oxygen transition zone consistent with it putatively conducting nitrification. Detailed genomic analyses of MBAE14 evidenced both ammonia oxidation and denitrification into dinitrogen capabilities. However, the absence of known CO2-fixation genes suggests a heterotrophic denitrifying metabolism. Functional marker genes of ammonia oxidation (amo and hao) in the MBAE14 genome are homologous with those conserved in autotrophic nitrifiers, but not with those of known heterotrophic nitrifiers. We propose that this novel MBAE14 inhabits the specific ammonia-rich, oxygen and labile organic matter-limited conditions occurring in Base Mine Lake which selectively favors mixotrophic coupled nitrifier denitrification metabolism. Our results highlight the opportunities to better constrain biogeochemical cycles from the application of metagenomics to engineered systems associated with extractive resource sectors.

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“…The corresponding effect‐based thresholds were mainly based on the Saskatchewan Surface Water Quality Objectives (SWQOs), benchmarks that directly adopt the generic Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Guidelines, and the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines (CWQGs) for the long‐term protection of freshwater aquatic life. The HQs were classified according to White and Liber (2018) as follows: very high (>1), high (0.7–0.99), moderate (0.40–0.69), low (0.10–0.39), and very low (<0.1). The cumulative risk was estimated by summing only HQs > 0.4/site (moderate risk), making the still conservative assumption that the risk from key effluent contaminants is additive.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delineating Effluent Exposure and Cumulative Ecotoxicological Risk of Metals Downstream of a Saskatchewan Uranium Mill Using Autonomous Sensors

Cupe-Flores

Mendes

Panigrahi

et al. 2022

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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There is increasing interest in using autonomous sensor technology to monitor aquatic ecosystems in real time and in employing such monitoring data to perform better ecological risk assessments. At seven locations in McClean Lake in northern Saskatchewan (Canada) that received diluted uranium milling effluent, we deployed sensor units to track effluent distribution and help predict potential biological effects on aquatic invertebrates. Water was also collected from each location on multiple occasions to measure major ions, dissolved metals, and routine water quality, and sediment was sampled to analyze total metals. The ecotoxicological risk to aquatic invertebrates was estimated using hazard quotients (HQs). The cumulative risk was estimated by summing the individual HQs, and the major ions risk was based on total osmolarity. The results indicated temporal and spatial variations in effluent exposure based on sensor electrical conductivity (EC) measurements in the McClean Lake East Basin. Individual HQs for water ranged from “moderate” (0.40–0.69) to “very high” (greater than 1) for silver, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, mercury, iron, and thallium. At all sites, major ions risk was less than 1. Individual HQs for sediment were “moderate” (0.40–0.69), “high” (0.7–0.99), and “very high” (greater than 1) for vanadium and cadmium. The cumulative risk in water and sediment for all metals combined was greater than 1 at some sites in Vulture Lake (which discharged into McClean Lake) and in McClean Lake itself. A more detailed estimation of the risks for aqueous selenium and arsenic (the only two metals that had good correlation with sensor EC data) indicated that their 90th percentile HQ values were less than 1 in McClean Lake, suggesting that these contaminants of concern do not represent a significant direct risk to aquatic invertebrate communities. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:1765–1777. © 2022 SETAC

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Early chemical and toxicological risk characterization of inorganic constituents in surface water from the Canadian oil sands first large-scale end pit lake

Cited by 40 publications

References 35 publications

Effects of Calcium and Aluminum on Particle Settling in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake

Effects of Calcium and Aluminum on Particle Settling in an Oil Sands End Pit Lake

Putative Mixotrophic Nitrifying-Denitrifying Gammaproteobacteria Implicated in Nitrogen Cycling Within the Ammonia/Oxygen Transition Zone of an Oil Sands Pit Lake

Delineating Effluent Exposure and Cumulative Ecotoxicological Risk of Metals Downstream of a Saskatchewan Uranium Mill Using Autonomous Sensors

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