While at a brand new oil sands mining facility in northern Alberta, Canada, I was assigned as the Environmental Advisor monitoring the construction, planting, and testing of a demonstration-level treatment wetland. The intent was to treat runoff that had been in contact with overburden materials that potentially could contain bitumen. Unfortunately, staff was cut in December 2015 due to the decline in oil price, and I have learned little new since that time about the results of testing. One potential drawback to the design of cascading pools was failure to account for the erosive potential of the flowing water, as the gradient was quite steep. Additional issues included the presence of an HDPE liner beneath the system that limited the depth of planted substrate rooting, and the presence of saturated muskeg in the immediate area of the test facility.
Published by Greg Moss, Environmental Management/Hydrogeologist
While at a brand new oil sands mining facility in northern Alberta, Canada, I was assigned as the Environmental Advisor monitoring the construction, planting, and testing of a demonstration-level treatment wetland. The intent was to treat runoff that had been in contact with overburden materials that potentially could contain bitumen. Unfortunately, staff was cut in December 2015 due to the decline in oil price, and I have learned little new since that time about the results of testing.
One potential drawback to the design of cascading pools was failure to account for the erosive potential of the flowing water, as the gradient was quite steep. Additional issues included the presence of an HDPE liner beneath the system that limited the depth of planted substrate rooting, and the presence of saturated muskeg in the immediate area of the test facility.
1 Comment
It is true that besides the "scientific" design, it is quite easy that the system would fail due to improper civil construction.. I suppose the system you tested was with surface flow, which usually is not that deep (30-40 cm of soil and a water column of 10-30 cm on top of it). The applications for water contaminated with oil hydrocarbons are the most challenging in any case. Especially the one you tested, which contained bitumen.
Published by Alexandros Stefanakis, Constructed Wetlands Specialist