The impact of Aptian glacio‐eustasy on the stratigraphic architecture of the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sedimentology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1600-1642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean C. Horner ◽  
Stephen M. Hubbard ◽  
Harrison K. Martin ◽  
Cynthia A. Hagstrom ◽  
Dale A. Leckie
Keyword(s):  
Oil Sands ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Stratigraphic Architecture ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Impact of Athabasca oil sands operations on mercury levels in air and deposition

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 12783-12807
Author(s):  
Ashu Dastoor ◽  
Andrei Ryjkov ◽  
Gregor Kos ◽  
Junhua Zhang ◽  
Jane Kirk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Sands ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Emission Sources ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Deposition Fluxes ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands Region ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Air Concentrations

Abstract. Oil sands upgrading facilities in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR) in Alberta, Canada, have been reporting mercury (Hg) emissions to public government databases (National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)) since the year 2000, yet the relative contribution of these emissions to ambient Hg deposition remains unknown. The impact of oil sands emissions (OSE) on Hg levels in and around the AOSR, relative to contributions from global (anthropogenic, geogenic and legacy) emissions and regional biomass burning emissions (BBE), was assessed using a global 3D-process-based Hg model, GEM-MACH-Hg, from 2012 to 2015. In addition, the relative importance of year-to-year changes in Hg emissions from the above sources and meteorological conditions to inter-annual variations in Hg deposition was examined. Surface air concentrations of Hg species and annual snowpack Hg loadings simulated by the model were found comparable to measured levels in the AOSR, suggesting consistency between reported Hg emissions from oil sands activities and Hg levels in the region. As a result of global-scale transport and the long lifetime of gaseous elemental Hg (Hg(0)), surface air concentrations of Hg(0) in the AOSR reflected the background Hg(0) levels in Canada. By comparison, average air concentrations of total oxidized Hg (efficiently deposited Hg species) in the AOSR were elevated up to 60 % within 50 km of the oil sands Hg emission sources. Hg emissions from wildfire events led to episodes of high ambient Hg(0) concentrations and deposition enrichments in northern Alberta, including the AOSR, during the burning season. Hg deposition fluxes in the AOSR were within the range of the deposition fluxes measured for the entire province of Alberta. On a broad spatial scale, contribution from imported Hg from global sources dominated the annual background Hg deposition in the AOSR, with present-day global anthropogenic emissions contributing to 40 % (< 1 % from Canada excluding OSE) and geogenic and legacy emissions contributing to 60 % of the background Hg deposition. In contrast, oil sands Hg emissions were responsible for significant enhancements in Hg deposition in the immediate vicinity of oil sands Hg emission sources, which were ∼ 10 times larger in winter than summer (250 %–350 % in winter and ∼ 35 % in summer within 10 km of OSE, 2012–2013). The spatial extent of the influence of oil sands emissions on Hg deposition was also greater in winter relative to summer (∼ 100 km vs. 30 km from Hg-emitting facilities). In addition, inter-annual changes in meteorological conditions and oil sands emissions also led to significantly higher inter-annual variations in wintertime Hg deposition compared to summer. In 2015, within 10 km of major oil sands sources, relative to 2012, Hg deposition declined by 46 % in winter but 22 % annually, due to a larger OSE-led reduction in wintertime deposition. Inter-annual variations in meteorological conditions were found to both exacerbate and diminish the impacts of OSE on Hg deposition in the AOSR, which can confound the interpretation of trends in short-term environmental Hg monitoring data. Hg runoff in spring flood, comprising the majority of annual Hg runoff, is mainly derived from seasonal snowpack Hg loadings and mobilization of Hg deposited in surface soils, both of which are sensitive to Hg emissions from oil sands developments in the proximity of sources. Model results suggest that sustained efforts to reduce anthropogenic Hg emissions from both global and oil sands sources are required to reduce Hg deposition in the AOSR.

Reclamation for aspen revegetation in the Athabasca oil sands: Understanding soil water dynamics through unsaturated flow modelling

2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Carrera-Hernández ◽  
C. A. Mendoza ◽  
K. J. Devito ◽  
R. M. Petrone ◽  
B. D. Smerdon
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Unsaturated Flow ◽  
Water Dynamics ◽  
Soil Water Dynamics ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Flow Modelling ◽  
The Impact

Carrera-Hernández, J. J., Mendoza, C. A., Devito, K. J., Petrone, R. M. and Smerdon, B. D. 2012. Reclamation for aspen revegetation in the Athabasca oil sands: Understanding soil water dynamics through unsaturated flow modelling. Can. J. Soil Sci. 92: 103–116. Reclamation of mined areas in the Athabasca oil sands region is required by law, with the ultimate goal of revegetating to species characteristic of predisturbance native plant communities. To develop adequate reclamation strategies, an analysis of soil water dynamics is of utmost importance, as is understanding the impact of the thickness of the reclamation cover. In this work, soil water dynamics and fluxes at the water table were simulated for three reclamation scenarios and compared with the fluxes obtained for natural conditions assuming that aspen is the target reclamation species. According to the simulations, a reclamation thickness between 0.5 and 1.0 m can be used to provide water for revegetation. The numerical simulations show that the reclaimed landscapes have fluxes at the water table that exhibit less fluctuation than natural conditions. To limit the interaction between the water table and atmospheric fluxes, and to limit upward flux, the water table should be deeper than 2.0 m on reclaimed landscapes that use aspen for revegetation, particularly when reclamation takes place during a dry climatological cycle.

scholarly journals The impact of the 2016 Fort McMurray Horse River Wildfire on ambient air pollution levels in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, Alberta, Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 618 ◽  
pp. 1665-1676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Landis ◽  
Eric S. Edgerton ◽  
Emily M. White ◽  
Gregory R. Wentworth ◽  
Amy P. Sullivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Fort Mcmurray ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands Region ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals A chemical transport model study of plume rise and particle size distribution for the Athabasca oil sands

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayodeji Akingunola ◽  
Paul A. Makar ◽  
Junhua Zhang ◽  
Andrea Darlington ◽  
Shao-Meng Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Size Distribution ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Aerosol Size Distribution ◽  
Plume Rise ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Diffusivity ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. We evaluate four high-resolution model simulations of pollutant emissions, chemical transformation and downwind transport for the Athabasca oil sands using the Global Environmental Multiscale – Modelling Air-quality and Chemistry (GEM-MACH) model using surface monitoring network and aircraft observations of multiple pollutants, for simulations spanning a time period corresponding to an aircraft measurement campaign in the region in summer 2013. We have focussed here on the impact of different representations of the model's aerosol size distribution and plume-rise parameterization on model results. The use of a more finely resolved representation of the aerosol size distribution was found to have a significant impact on model performance, reducing the magnitude of the original surface PM2.5 negative biases by 32 %. We compared model predictions of SO2, NO2, and speciated particulate matter concentrations from simulations employing the commonly-used Briggs (1984) plume-rise algorithms to redistribute emissions from large stacks with stack plume observations. As in our companion paper (Gordon et al., 2018), we found these algorithms resulted in under-predictions of plume rise, with 39 to 60 % of predicted plume heights falling below half of the observed plume heights. However, we found here that a layered buoyancy approach for stable to neutral atmospheres, coupled with the assumption of free rise in convectively unstable atmospheres, resulted in much better model performance, both for atmospheric constituent concentrations and the predicted height of the plumes. Persistent issues with over-fumigation of plumes in the model were linked to positive biases in the predicted temperatures between the surface and 1km elevation. These in turn may lead to overestimates of near-surface diffusivity, resulting in excessive fumigation.

scholarly journals Impact of Athabasca oil sands operations on mercury levels in air and deposition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashu Dastoor ◽  
Andrei Ryjkov ◽  
Gregor Kos ◽  
Junhua Zhang ◽  
Jane Kirk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Sands ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Mercury Deposition ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Deposition Fluxes ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Air Concentrations

Abstract. Oil sands upgrading facilities in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in Alberta, Canada, have been reporting mercury (Hg) emissions to public government databases (National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI)) since the year 2000, yet the relative contribution of these emissions to ambient Hg deposition remains unknown. A 3D process-based global Hg model, GEM-MACH-Hg, was applied to simulate the Hg burden in and around the AOSR using NPRI reported oil sands Hg emissions from 2012 (59 kg) to 2015 (25 kg) and other regional and global Hg emissions. The impact of oil sands emissions (OSE) on Hg levels in the AOSR, relative to contributions from sources such as global anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions (BBE), was assessed. In addition, the relative importance of year-to-year changes in Hg emissions from the above sources and meteorological conditions to inter-annual variations in Hg deposition was examined. Model simulated surface air concentrations of Hg species and annually accumulated Hg in snowpacks were found comparable to independently obtained measurements in the AOSR, suggesting consistency between reported Hg emissions from oil sands activities and Hg levels in the region. As a result of global-scale transport of gaseous elemental Hg (Hg(0)), surface air concentrations of Hg(0) in the AOSR reflected the background Hg(0) levels in Canada (1.4 ng m−3, AOSR; 1.2 1.6 ng m−3, Canada) with negligible impact from OSE. Highly spatiotemporally variable wildfire Hg emission events led to episodes of high ambient Hg(0) air concentrations of up to 2.5 ng m−3 during the burning season. By comparison, average air concentrations of total oxidised Hg (gaseous plus particulate; efficiently deposited Hg species) in the AOSR were elevated by 60 % above background levels (2012–2013) within 50 km of the oil sands major upgraders as a result of OSE. Annual average Hg deposition fluxes in the AOSR were within the range of the deposition fluxes measured for the entire province of Alberta (15.6–18.3 µg m−2 y−1, AOSR (2012–2015); ~14–25 µg m−2 y−1, Alberta (2015)). Winter (November–April) and summer (June–August), respectively, accounted for 20 % and 50 % of the annual Hg deposition in the AOSR. On a broad spatial scale, imported Hg from global sources dominated the annual Hg deposition in the AOSR, with present-day global anthropogenic emissions contributing to 40 % (< 1 % from Canada excluding OSE), and geogenic emissions and re-emissions of legacy mercury deposition contributing to 60 % of the background Hg deposition. Further, wildfire events contributed to regional Hg deposition with enhancements of 1–13 % across 200 km range of major oil sands sources. In contrast, oil sands Hg emissions were responsible for significant Hg deposition enhancements in the immediate vicinity of oil sands Hg emission sources, up to 100 km in winter and up to 30 km in summer. Hg deposition enhancements related to oil sands emissions were about 10 times larger in winter than summer (average enhancement of 250–350 % in winter and ~35 % in summer within 10 km of OSE, 2012–2013). In addition, snowpack Hg loadings and wintertime Hg deposition displayed significantly higher inter-annual variations compared to summertime deposition due to changes in meteorological conditions (such as precipitation amounts, wind speed, surface air temperature, solar insolation, and snowpack dynamics) as well as oil sands emissions. For example, a large snowmelt event at the end of February in 2015 effectively removed about half of the accumulated mercury in snow, contributing to (observed and modeled) low annual snow Hg loadings. Inter-annual variations in meteorological conditions were found to both exacerbate and diminish the impacts of OSE on Hg deposition in the AOSR, which can confound the interpretation of trends in short-term environmental Hg monitoring data. In winter, within 10 km of major oil sands sources, variations in meteorology led to Hg deposition reduction by 17 % in 2014 and increase by 10 % in 2015 and decline in OSE lowered Hg deposition by 35 % (2014) and 56 % ( 2015), resulting in overall reductions in wintertime Hg deposition of 52 % (2014) and 46 % (2015), relative to 2012. By comparison, annually, changes in meteorology and BBE in 2014–2015 (relative to 2012) led to Hg deposition increases of 1–6 % and 2 %, respectively, and decline in OSE lowered deposition by 15–22 %, resulting in overall reduction in Hg deposition of 7–20 % within 10 km of oil sands sources. Hg runoff in spring flood, comprising the majority of annual Hg runoff, is mainly derived from seasonal snowpack Hg loadings and mobilization of Hg deposited in surface soils, both of which are sensitive to Hg emissions from oil sands developments in proximity of sources. Model results suggest that sustained efforts to reduce anthropogenic Hg emissions from both global and oil sands sources are required to reduce Hg deposition in the AOSR.

scholarly journals The Effects of Plume Episodes on PAC Profiles in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region

2021 ◽  
pp. 117014
Author(s):  
Narumol Jariyasopit ◽  
Tom Harner ◽  
Cecilia Shin ◽  
Richard Park
Keyword(s):  
Oil Sands ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands Region
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