Off Lease

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Oil sands Aquatic Cumulative Impact Assessment
Off Lease Natural Oil sands constituents
Assessment of ecosystem health
(Baseline) Assimilative Capacity?
Wet Landscape Reclamation Options Aquatic
ecosystem health and sustainability?
Demonstration Pond
Athabasca River
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On Lease Aquatic Research COMPLETED

• Fish
• Yellow perch physiological, biochemistry,
  histopathology
• white lesions and fin erosion, signs of disease
  related to exposure to fresh oil sands material
  (van den Heuvel et al. 1999a)
• MFO bile PAH metabolites, good indicators of
  exposure gonad size and fecundity not correlated
  with exposure gradient suggesting importance of
  ecological not chemical factors (van den Heuvel
  et al. 1999b)
• adult yellow perch and goldfish had increased
  gill and liver pathology at elevated levels of
  NAs (24 mg/l) in reclaimed ponds (Nero et al.,
  2006 a b)
• Growth and feeding of young-of-the-year yellow
  perch
• spatial and temporal analyses required for
  isotopic characterization of littoral food webs
  due to differences in differences in growth
  (Murchie and Power, 2004)
• Reproductive endpoints
• goldfish plasma testosterone levels decreased
  with an increase in processed-material (Lister et
  al. 2008)

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On Lease Aquatic Research COMPLETED

• Effects of oil sands constituents and modifying
  factors
• Fish
• Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs)
• oil sands derived PAC extract increased blue sac
  disease signs and decreased hatch length for
  medaka (Rhodes et al., 2005) medaka hatch length
  LOEC, 11 µg PAC/L, percentage normal medaka (LOEC
  44 µg PAC /L) (Farwell et al. 2006a)
• mature fine tailings with elevated PACs, medaka
  hatch length and percentage normal medaka LOECs
  50 -100 MFT (Farwell et al.)
• Modifying effect of UV on oil sands PAC toxicity
  (Farwell et al. 2006b) photomodification
  reduced effects on medaka development
  co-exposure (phototoxicity) increased effects
• Naphthenic Acids
• juvenile yellow perch LC 100, 6.8 mg oil sands
  NA/L (Nero et al., 2006b)
• medaka embryo-larval development, percentage
  normal LOEC 16 mg oil sands NA/L (Farwell et al.
  2006b)
• addition of salt (1g/L sodium sulfate) reduced
  acute toxicity, increased gill proliferative
  (epithelial, mucous, and chloride cell) changes
  and reduced gill surface area in juvenile yellow
  perch (Nero et al., 2006b)
• salinity caused similar or increased toxicity to
  larval fathead minnows (Farwell et al.) and fish
  cell lines (Lee et al.)

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On Lease Aquatic Research COMPLETED

• Invertebrates
• Secondary production of Chironomidae in OSPM
  wetlands
• Tanypodinae (benthic 1.55-28.77g/m2/y)
  production greater than Chaoborus (pelagic)
  production Tanypodinae densities greater at OSPM
  vs. reference wetlands (Ganshorn, 2002).
• Zoobenthic succession
• Zoobenthic richness and abundance succession 5
  yrs in reference wetlands (Leonhardt, 2003).
• Effects of coke amendments on macrophytes and
  invertebrates
• no significant increases in metals in pore water
  or biota no impact on macrophyte growth coke
  plots had fewer stress-intolerant invertebrates
  in reference vs. OSPM wetlands (Baker, 2007).
• Phytoplankton
• Phytoplankton community structure (Leung et al.,
  2001 Hayes, 2005)
• thresholds for NAs of gt 20 mg/L (Leung et al.,
  2001) and 24-50 mg/L (Hayes, 2005)
• Microbes
• microbial functional processes (community
  production and respiration) of OSPM
  
  
  wetlands differ from
  reference wetlands production and methanogenesis
  inhibited by salinity (Daly, 2007)
• stable isotopes used to trace bacterial
  degradation of NAs in laboratory (Videla et al.,
  submitted)
• Food Web Dynamics
• stable isotope analyses of microbial community
  (Daly, 2007) and benthic invertebrate community
  (Farwell et al. submitted, Murchie and Power,
  2004, Elshayeb, 2007)

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On Lease Aquatic Research CURRENT Aquatic
Research

• Fish and Frogs
• effects of oil sands constituents on fish
  reproduction (R. Kavanagh, G. Van Der Kraak)
• sustainability of reclamation strategies using
  wood frogs as a bioindicator (B. Hersikorn, J.
  Smits)
• Invertebrates
• invertebrate community of wet meadow ecosystems
  (L. Jacobson, J. Ciborowski)
• In situ bioassay of midge larva chromosomes (J.
  Martin, J. Ciborowski)
• fate of metal release from oil sands coke
  assessment of risk to aquatic organisms (N.
  Puttaswamy, K. Liber)
• toxicity of oil sands processed water to
  Ceriodaphnia (N. Toor, K. Liber)
• Algae and Macrophytes
• growth and photosynthesis of Typha in OSPM (J.
  Hornung, L. Foote)
• aquatic macrophyte community composition and
  density (J. Hornung, L. Foote)
• net primary productivity (C. Wytrykush, J.
  Ciborowski)
• seasonal and spatial trends in production and
  stable isotope signatures of phytoplankton and
  periphyton (M. Boutsovongsakd, D. G. Dixon)
• Nutrient enrichment impact on primary production,
  and rate and type of macrophyte and invertebrate
  colonization (C. Hao, D. Dixon)
• rates of detrital decomposition and peat growth
  (J. Hornung, L. Foote, C. Wytrykush, J.
  Ciborowski)
• decomposition in OSPM wetlands respiration rates
  of decomposing cattail leaves (C. Wytrykush, J.
  Ciborowski)
• Microbial Community
• assess the use of relative abundance of testate
  amoebae (protozoa), bacteria and fungi as a
  performance indicator in OSPM (Legg, Warner)

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The End Pit Lake Concept

• Ecological capability or capacity equivalent to
  the pre-mining state
• Containment and treatment of OSPM
• Self sustaining
• Integrated into the local watershed with no
  off-lease/downstream impacts

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Off Lease Aquatic Research COMPLETED

• Fish
• benthic and predatory fish populations (Oil sands
  Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, RAMP) -
  ongoing
• effects of oil sands sediments on the early life
  stages of fathead minnow (Colavecchia et al.,
  2004)
• effects of oil sands sediments on the early life
  stages of white sucker (Colavecchia et al., 2006)
• effects of oil sands sediments on slimy sculpin
  (Tetreault et al., 2003a Tetreault et al.,
  2003)
• Baseline data sites on oil sands deposit showed
  increased EROD induction and reproductive effects
  in slimy sculpin compared to reference sites
• stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to trace
  natural and anthropogenic sources of bitumen
  constituents in riverine systems influenced by
  the Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit (Farwell et al.)
• Invertebrates
• invertebrate community structure (RAMP)
• Primary Producers
• Phytoplankton community structure (Hayes, 2005)

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Athabasca River Watershed

• KEY CONCERNS TO BE ADDRESSED
• Sustainable Water Quantity and Quality
• How can competing oil sands projects best use the
  available groundwater and maintain surface water
  quality and quantity?
• What is the appropriate sustainable management of
  water in the Athabasca River and its tributaries
  in the AOSA?
• How much water can be withdrawn for mining and
  what quality of returned water is required?
• Natural Versus Industrial
• What chemical inputs to the rivers occurs
  naturally and what inputs are derived from
  industrial activities in the OSMA?
• Distal Impacts
• What are the ecosystem and human health impact of
  distal transport of contaminants from the OSMA?
• Can the impacts (if any) be characterized and
  quantified?
• Can ecosystem benchmarks and quantitative
  standards be developed?
• Critical pathways include the Athabasca River and
  its tributaries, but also atmospheric.

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Athabasca River Watershed Research Initiatives
(proposed)

• Sediment impacts Historical Context and Recent
  impacts
• Sediment cores, multi-proxy paleolimnology and
  contaminant (PACs and metals) study (Wolfe, Hall,
  Edwards, Dixon) pre and post development,
  atmospheric flux
• spatial distribution of contemporary contaminant
  concentrations (Evans)
• Aquatic Ecology, Toxicology and River
  Assimilative Capacity
• determine sediment toxicity associated with
  various contaminants in lake sediment and aquatic
  biota (Dixon, Evans)
• sediment quality assessments - microbial
  communities (Warner) and benthic invertebrate
  community composition and standing stocks
  (Barton)
• determine effects on fish reproduction (Van Der
  Kraak) and fish population/community (Power,
  Dixon)
• Integrated Models
• develop integrated surface-water/groundwater
  models at a number of scales. (Mendoza, Rudolph
  and Barker)

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Cumulative Impact Assessment Adaptive Management
Off Lease Natural Oil sands constituents
Assessment of ecosystem health
(Baseline) Assimilative Capacity?
Wet Landscape Reclamation Ecosystem health and
sustainability?
Adaptive Management
Base Mine Lake
Lease Closure Landscape Wet and Dry Landscape
Suite of Monitoring Tools ?
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