Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 601, Issue -, Pages 1785-1802Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.024
Keywords
Alberta oil sands; OSPW; Composition Water type; Naphthenic acids; Toxicity
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Senior Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in Oil Sands Tailings Water Treatment - Syncrude Canada Ltd.
- Suncor Energy Incorporated
- Shell Canada
- Canadian Natural Resources Limited
- Total EP Canada Ltd.
- EPCOR Water Services
- IOWC Technologies Inc.
- Alberta Innovates - Energy and Environment Solution
- Alberta Environment and Parks
- Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative (HAI) through the Alberta Environment and Parks' ecoTrust Program
- Alberta Ingenuity
- China Scholarship Council
- Killam Memorial Scholarship
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Large volumes of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) are produced by the surface-mining oil sands industry in Alberta. Both laboratory and field studies have demonstrated that the exposure to OSPW leads to many physiological changes in a variety of organisms. Adverse effects include compromised immunological function, developmental delays, impaired reproduction, disrupted endocrine system, and higher prevalence of tissue-specific pathological manifestations. The composition of OSPW varies with several factors such as ore sources, mining process, and tailings management practices. Differences in water characteristics have confounded interpretation or comparison of OSPW toxicity across studies. Research on individual fractions extracted from OSPW has helped identify some target pollutants. Naphthenic acids (NAs) are considered as the major toxic components in OSPW, exhibiting toxic effects through multiple modes of action including narcosis and endocrine disruption. Other pollutants, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, and ions may also contribute to the overall OSPW toxicity. Studies have been conducted on OSPW as a whole complex effluent mixture, with consideration of the presence of unidentified components, and the interactions (potential synergistic or antagonistic reactions) among chemicals. This review summarizes the toxicological data derived from in vitro and in vivo exposure studies using different OSPW types, and different taxa of organisms. In general, toxicity of OSPW was found to be dependent on the OSPW type and concentration, duration of exposures (acute versus sub chronic), and organism studied. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available