4.7 Article

Is there widespread metal contamination from in-situ bitumen extraction at Cold Lake, Alberta heavy oil field?

Journal

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 447, Issue -, Pages 337-344

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.12.097

Keywords

Alberta oil sands; Metals; Paleolimnology; Soil contamination; Airborne contamination

Funding

  1. Health Canada's National First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program
  2. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

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The extraction of oil sands by in-situ methods in Alberta has expanded dramatically in the past two decades and will soon overtake surface mining as the dominant bitumen production process in the province. While concerns regarding regional metal emissions from oil sand mining and bitumen upgrading have arisen, there is a lack of information on emissions from the in-situ industry alone. Here we show using lake sediment records and regionally-distributed soil samples that in the absence of bitumen upgrading and surface mining, there has been no significant metal (As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, V) enrichment from the Cold Lake in-situ oil field. Sediment records demonstrate post-industrial Cd, Hg and Pb enrichment beginning in the early Twentieth Century, which has leveled off or declined since the onset of commercial in-situ bitumen production at Cold Lake in 1985. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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