Threshold Considerations and Wetland Reclamation in Alberta's Mineable Oil Sands

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Oil sand extraction in Alberta, Canada is a multibillion dollar industry operating over 143 km² of open pit mining and 4600 km² of other bitumen strata in northern boreal forests. Oil production contributes to Canada-wide GDP, creates sociocultural problems, provides energy exports and employment, and carries environmental risks regarding long-term reclamation uncertainties. Of particular concern are the implications for wetlands and water supply management. Mining of oil sands is very attractive because proven reserves of known quality occur in an accessible, politically stable environment with existing infrastructure and an estimated 5.5 billion extractable barrels to be mined over the next five decades. Extraction occurs under a set of limiting factors or thresholds including: limited social tolerance at local to international levels for externalities of oil sand production; water demands > availability; limited natural gas supplies for oil processing leading to proposals for hydroelectric dams and nuclear reactors to be constructed; difficulties in reclaiming sufficient habitat area to replace those lost. Replacement of the 85 km² of peat-forming wetlands forecast to be destroyed appears unlikely. Over 840 billion liters of toxic fluid byproducts are currently held in 170 km² of open reservoirs without any known process to purify this water in meaningful time frames even as some of it leaches into adjacent lands and rivers. Costs for wetland reclamation are high with estimates of $4 to $13 billion, or about 6% of the net profits generated from mining those sites. This raises a social equity question of how much reclamation is appropriate. Time frames for economic, political, and ecological actions are not well aligned. Local people on or near mine sites have had to change their area use for decades and have been affected by industrial development. Examining mining effects to estimate thresholds of biophysical realities, time scales, economic allocations, and social tolerance helps to contextualize the needs for decision making and relevant policy formation as a way of constructively reconciling production with governing safeguards to the environment and citizens.

Impacts and prognosis of natural resource development on water and wetlands in Canada’s boreal zone

“…Multiple effects of point and diffuse disturbances within and among industrial sectors that are hydrologically connected can also accumulate over the landscape (Keller 2009;Seitz et al 2012), leading to greater uncertainty and unpredictability of ecosystem response (Dubé 2003;Gunn and Noble 2011). It is expected that both individual and cumulative effects resulting in nonlinear and tipping point behaviour will become the new "norm" in boreal ecosystems in response to intensified and (or) expanded natural resource development (Kinzig et al 2006;Foote 2012).…”

“…All extraction wastes are contained in large tailings or settling ponds, constructed using overburden and tailings and retained by sand dykes constructed with drainage collections systems to intercept leaking water. The current volume of fluid tailings is estimated at 720 × 10 6 m 3 and covers 130 km 2 (Government of Alberta 2012a), an area likely to increase with further expansion of oil sands mining operations unless regulatory requirements reduce the 40 year historical inventory of tailings (Woynillowicz et al 2005;Gosselin et al 2010;Foote 2012). Directive 074 of Alberta Energy Regulator requires reduction of fluid tailings and conversion of tailings into trafficable deposits that are ready for reclamation five years after the deposits have ended (ERCB 2009).…”

“…Contamination can occur both at the well or excavation site (e.g., oil and hydraulic facturing fluid spills), from tailings ponds (e.g., overflows or breaches, groundwater seepage), from pipelines during transport, or from groundwater contamination (e.g., saltwater intrusion, mixing of water with hydrocarbons, groundwater heating from steam extraction) (National Energy Board 2009;CAPP 2010CAPP , 2012Environment Canada -Oil Sands Advisory Panel 2010;Foote 2012; Council of Canadian Academies 2014). Although some of these are specific to different oil and gas extraction methods, examples from surface and in situ extraction of the oil sands are given below.…”

Assessment of the aerosol optical depths measured by satellite-based passive remote sensors in the Alberta oil sands region

“…The Alberta oil sands region (AOSR) has been under rapid industrial development during the past decade (Foote, 2012). Satellite measurements already indicate a significant increasing trend in nitrogen dioxide between and 2014(McLinden et al, 2012.…”

Cumulative Effects Assessment: Linking Social, Ecological, and Governance Dimensions

“…However the paper by Foote (2012) outlines some of the external constraints on local decision making, including global markets, and employment and economic outcomes at global scales, illustrating a continued gap in how to integrate cumulative effects management across different scales of drivers and outcomes. Focusing on the development of Canada's oil sands, Foote examines the issue of thresholds from an ecological, social, and governance perspective.…”