Mines Not Polluting Athabasca Delta
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
A new study carried by the Athabasca River shows that emissions from the Alberta oil sands and other human activities have not yet increased the concentrations traveling to the Athabasca Delta around 200 kilometers from the oil sands
The study, carried out by scientists at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, developed a novel approach that can accurately determine the pre-industrial baseline levels of metals in river sediment. This approach allows regulators to instantly determine if values from routine monitoring programs contain evidence of human-made pollution.
Sediment at the end of the Athabasca River - 200 km downstream from oil sands mines - doesn't have higher concentrations of metals than what would be there naturally, according to a Waterloo study.
The results were found after a research team drilled down into the sediment of floodplain lakes at the Athabasca Delta, extracting sediments that were carried by the Athabasca River as long as 300 years ago. By comparing metal concentrations from these historic sediment samples to current values in river bottom sediment, researchers were able to determine that the oil sands mines have not yet polluted the area studied.
Sediment cores like a time machine
Roland Hall, a biologist in Waterloo's Faculty of Science, says studying sediment that was supplied by Athabasca River floodwaters before commercial oil mining is like a time-machine that lets you travel back in time. The pre-industrial sediments provide baseline data for comparison so scientists can determine how much of the metals in the sediment are naturally occurring and how much are the result of the commercial oil extraction that began in the late 1960s.
Studying the impact of oil sands development is complicated by the fact that erosion of bitumen-rich riverbanks naturally releases substantial quantities of metals and other contaminants into the river.
Read Details About The Study at University Of Waterloo Website
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