The impact on local water

The Impact on Local Water

TAR SANDS

Hot water at temperatures around 80oC and above, is then added to the crushed oil sand and allows the heavy bitumen to become less viscous then eventually separates from the sand. Sand and other debris sink to the bottom and then are removed and used for the tailings pond development.Bitumen (a heavy, sticky form of crude oil ) is reclaimed by a flotation process in which air is bubbled through the mixture and bitumen droplets become attached to air bubbles and create a product called bitumen froth.The rejected solids, water and added chemicals from the froth treatment process are then disposed of in tailings ponds.Tailings ponds from the tar sand extraction processes are potentially unrecoverable, polluting many Canadian lakes, rivers and streams by seepage, in which human and animal life depend on to live.

In 2012 close to 200 million m3 of fresh water was used during the extraction process of oil in the tar sands. There was a process that was developed in the late 1920’s by Dr. Karl Clark, called “Clark Hot Water Extraction Process” which are advanced techniques in extracting oil from tar sands

Changes to pH and compund levels:More than 90% of the water consumed during the tar sand process will never return back into the natural state because it is polluted with high levels of particulate matter too difficult to purify.

The residual waste water contains tailings of fine clay particles and residues of bitumen as well as salt, naphthenic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)(“which Arsenic is known to enhance the toxicity of PAHs, as is UV light supplied by sunlight exposure” ), heavy metals (“such as Mercury, Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, Zinc, Thallium,” ) cyanide, benzene and other pollutants.

Tar Extraction Process:

History of the tar sands:The bitumen rich sands of the Athabasca area were formed during the Cretaceous under ongoing processes or river and oceanic processes. During the Devonian period the Alberta plains were submerged in oceanic waters. This resulted in the formation of coral reefs that are the base of the organic material needed for the formation of the tar sands. The process of receding water over the following millennia caused the development of sediment deposits layered between clay caps.

The bitumen mined from the Athabasca area is composed of Carbon 83.2%Hydrogen 10.4%Oxygen 0.94%Nitrogen 0.36%Sulphur 4.8%

The abundant use of water and subsequent waste water also has an impact on the abundance of species of fish and water fowl. Fish have been known to develop cancer and genetic mutations, thus in turn decreasing the fish populations as they die off. Birds are more prone to landing in the toxic tailing ponds, and essentially dying as the high chemical levels in the ponds are toxic to that of almost all wildlife species.

Remediation:There is not much that can be done for the water that is used in the extraction process, as most of it has high levels of contaminants. The water that is able to be reused is reused in the extraction process. The government of Alberta has started implementing remediation processes to recover what has been lost due to the mining. Most of the regulations in place for the remediation plans to restore the land to what it once was with the redeveloping of forests.

Bitumen from the tar sands was first commercially sold in 1930, although commercial sales and development did not occur until the 1960s. Extraction of bitumen was made possible by Dr. Karl Clark, allowing for 300 barrel to be produced in 1930. Modern day oil development did not officially begin until 1953, with the formation of what was then the Great Canadian Oil Sands consortium (Suncor Inc today). The higher demand for oil increased the number of corporations that formed in order to mine and process the tar sands for consumer use. As of 2007 bitumen production reach 1.255 million bpd.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oilsand.asp https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpubs.pembina.org%2Freports%2Ftailings-directive-074-backgrounder.pdf&ei=mHpBU8GiE5OrsATq6YHgCg&usg=AFQjCNH7P8v2rFgq_ZtnCDCehK8EtiXisw&sig2=rvQNa5f9N3-SIpleRAVyAQhttp://thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/18/The%20Hidden%20Dimension_Water%20and%20the%20Oil%20Sands.pdf http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/08/18/The%20Hidden%20Dimension_Water%20and%20the%20Oil%20Sands.pdf http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/report/2010/4/Watershed_FS_footnote_rev_5.pdf http://www.ramp-alberta.org/resources/development/upgrading.aspx

There is a challenge when it comes to the remediation of the tailings ponds. As demand for oil grows, so does the need for fresh water to be used in the process of oil extraction. Due high levels of contaminants in the waste waters, water is left in ponds to settle. Some is reused while the rest of it stays there. The government of Canada has implemented regulations in the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plane for Oil Sands Monitoring. This plan regulates the sampling of the local water and surrounding land to determine if there is leakage from the tailings ponds.

Refernceshttp://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=9E0D4BC1-1&offset=4&toc=hidehttp://www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/report/2010/4/Watershed_FS_footnote_rev_5.pdfhttp://www.environment.alberta.ca/02012.htmlhttp://www.ramp-alberta.org/ramp.aspx

Kendra Charlton & Malwina Gora

Size: approx. 140000 square kilometresThird largest petroleum reserve0.15% considered certified reclaimed land2011, 170 million cubic metres of water was used