Land use – what we’re doing
We will mitigate our impact on the land while maintaining regional ecosystems and biodiversity.
We will progressively reclaim all lands affected by oil sands operations, returning them to self-sustaining landscapes.
Northern Canada is home to a vast expanse of boreal forest, which stretches across Canada and covers 3,200,000 square kilometres. Canada’s oil sands deposits lie under approximately 140,000 square kilometers of this vast, largely unsettled ecosystem. About 4,802 square kilometres or about three per cent of this area contain mineable deposits. In Alberta, about 90,000 square kilometres of the boreal forest is protected from development.
Impact on landscape
Mining
Oil sands mining requires clearing the land to excavate bitumen with trucks and shovels, and creating large tailings ponds to contain the tailings (water, clay, sand and residual bitumen) produced from bitumen separation.
Misconceptions about how much land is disturbed by oil sands developments are common. One misconception is that all oil sands production is from mining operations (which are the operations most often shown in photographs, with the large trucks and excavators). As noted above, less than three per cent of the oil sands area is shallow enough to be mined from the surface. Oil sands mining currently affects approximately 530 square kilometres – an area about half the size of the City of Edmonton.
In situ
That mineable area of the oil sands (three per cent of the oil sands surface area) contains 20 per cent of the oil sands resource that is recoverable with current technology. The other 80 per cent of the recoverable oil sands barrels lie deeper underground and are only accessible by drilling. These are called in situ oil sands. In situ projects have a limited surface disturbance that is similar to conventional oil development. Less than15 per cent of the surface area is disturbed for in situ production. Advanced technology, such as directional drilling, enables companies to drill multiple wells – sometimes more than 20 – from a single site, which limits the surface disturbance.
Whether mining or in situ, oil sands developers are committed to minimizing the impact they have on the land, by avoiding sensitive habitats, optimizing area use, and working with other users to reduce the overall footprint of industry. For example, in the late 1990s, an association of forestry, mining, oil and gas, and other Alberta industries launched an Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) program. The program coordinates activities between land users, such as combining road networks by using the same access roads and cut lines, and overlapping forestry harvesting areas with oil sands developments. This integrated approach helps minimize the impact on wildlife and vegetation.
Impact on wildlife
Oil sands production, like any energy or resource production, has the potential to impact wildlife. In the case of oil sands, impacts can include:
- loss of habitat;
- loss of migration corridors;
- increased hunting;
- disturbance from activity and noise; and
- alteration to the health of the habitat.
Wildlife is considered in all project planning and operations. All oil sands operations are required to monitor wildlife through winter track counts under EPEA approvals. The results of specific monitoring programs were the subject of two scientific workshops in 2005 and 2006 http://www.cemaonline.ca/content/view/21/176/.
In 2008, a research proposal was approved by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development to implement a regional program using existing research, remote cameras and DNA collection for wildlife monitoring. As well, the ALCES model is used during the development of oil sands projects to predict wildlife impacts and the effectiveness of reclamation on mitigating habitat loss.
Mining project designs include maintenance of wildlife movement corridors, controlled hunting, and bird deterrents in tailings ponds.
In situ project designs include a variety of measures to reduce the impact on wildlife, including:
- wildlife bridge crossings of pipelines;
- raised pipelines to allow access below the pipeline;
- line of sight considerations;
- minimized seismic line width; and
- avoidance of key habitat.
All oil sands projects include wildlife avoidance measures, including retention of moose habitat and timing of operations for consideration of calving and nesting seasons.
In February 2009, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute released a report on the impact of oil sands development on the biodiversity of northern Alberta. The report, titled "The Status of Birds and Vascular Plants in Alberta's Lower Athabasca Planning Region 2009," found that seven per cent of the lower Athabasca region has been impacted by human development (including forestry, energy and agriculture), but that the region's biodiversity is 94 per cent intact.
How land is reclaimed
Oil sands producers are required by government regulation to return disturbed land to equivalent capability, which is a sustainable landscape with productivity that is equal or greater than prior to oil sands development. The goal for the reclaimed landscape is that it be capable of supporting native vegetation and wildlife, even if it does not look exactly the same as it did before it was developed. This is accomplished by creating the building blocks that allow a diverse, natural landscape and ecosystem to take hold.
Before any work begins, a land reclamation plan must be developed and approved by government. This is a piece of the overall project approval process. Producers must also set aside funds to pay for redevelopment. As of February 2009, the Government of Alberta held $645 million from industry in trust for reclamation.
Oil sands mines
Reclamation doesn’t physically begin until after an area is no longer needed for mining activities, and has been backfilled. The area is contoured to ensure proper drainage occurs. Topsoil is placed over the land, and a nurse crop such as barley is sown and trees and shrubs are planted. Ongoing assessments of the soil and vegetation are made to ensure the reclamation activities are successful. Ultimately, the reclaimed land is certified and returned to the province.
As in any surface mining operation, it takes many years to complete operations and reclaim the land. In March 2008, Syncrude Gateway Hill became the first reclaimed area in the oil sands to receive official certification from the Alberta government. Syncrude’s Mildred Lake Site has been mined for about 30 years, with about a quarter of its footprint now reclaimed. This reclamation is an ongoing process as land becomes available. Syncrude is also actively reclaiming land at its newer Aurora site, with vegetation being planted as early as three years after disturbance.
So far, about 12 per cent of the total mineable area that has been disturbed since the 1960s has been reclaimed. Most of this is yet to be officially certified. Once land has been certified, it is open to public access and, since the reclaimed land is often adjacent to ongoing operations, safety issues arise once public access is granted. Despite being uncertified, this large area of reclaimed land is in fact attracting wildlife and native species.
Tailings ponds
Tailings are produced at oil sands mines through the oil sands extraction process. They are a mixture of water, clay, sand and residual bitumen. Tailings ponds are often built in a discontinued mine pit. Before the ponds can be reclaimed, the water must be removed. This can take many years, although new processes such as adding gypsum to the mixture is reducing the time it takes to reclaim the tailings ponds. Once the water has been removed, the ponds can be returned to functioning forest ecosystems.
Oil sands companies must set aside funds for future reclamation. This protects the public from the potential insolvency of the company. Companies must report their reclamation liabilities as part of its annual corporate financial reporting. As well, existing legislation effectively secures corporate assets if the reclamation is not completed.
Suncor’s Pond 1 will be the first oil sands tailings pond to be fully reclaimed, in 2010. The pond is no longer in use. Reclamation involves transferring the liquid mature fine tailings to the consolidated tailings process, filling the pond with sand, and then re-vegetating the land. The end state will be a mixed wood forest and a small wetland capable of supporting a variety of plants and wildlife.
In situ projects
Because of their similarity to conventional oil and gas facilities, in situ projects can use reclamation practices that are well developed and understood and have been used throughout Alberta for many years. In situ operations are able to reclaim land earlier than mining projects.
Imperial’s Cold Lake project had more than 65 per cent of disturbed land undergoing reclamation at the end of 2007, with 19 per cent already permanently reclaimed. This included planting over 720,000 trees and shrubs, all indigenous to the region.
EnCana has reduced the average footprint for its in situ drilling pads by almost 40 per cent by using technologies such as electric submersible pumps, efficient steam delivery and underground storage caverns.
Land use of reclaimed areas
Oil sands companies consult with regional stakeholders to determine how the reclaimed land will be used. There are many potential uses, such as wildlife habitat, forestry, recreational activities and traditional land use. Reclamation plans are not approved, however, without a self-sustaining boreal forest as the ultimate goal.
Research
Many universities and forums have invested in reclamation research, including the Universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Waterloo, Windsor, Guelph, British Columbia, Illinois, Prince Edward Island and Laval University, as well as CEMA and CONRAD (Canadian Oil Sand Network for Research and Development). Their research focus has included modeling forest success, reconstruction of peatlands, wetland re-establishment, establishment of saline plants and contaminant transport in the food chain.
Standards and guidelines
Reclamation standards and guidelines are in place and used by the oil sands industry. These guidelines are refined as new research becomes available. For example, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) is a multi-stakeholder group whose members include regional Aboriginal communities, oil sands companies, Alberta and federal government agencies and environmental non-governmental organizations. CEMA develops recommendations on oil sands environmental management, including reclamation practices. The government agencies are then responsible for approving and enforcing the recommendations.
In 2007, Alberta Environment accepted CEMA’s update to the reclamation standards for forest ecosystems in the oil sands region, and refined the reclamation requirements for soil moisture, nutrient regimes and chemical properties. CEMA has also researched wetlands creation and the establishment of reclaimed landscapes that support wildlife populations and biodiversity.
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development has developed a provincial land-use framework to better manage cumulative development issues. The Lower Athabasca Regional Plan will establish cumulative environmental and socio-economic thresholds in the oil sands region and will be completed by 2010.
The Fort McMurray/Athabasca Oil Sands Integrated Resource Plan further defines some activity guidelines for the mineable oil sands region. Land use management is also included in the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval conditions, and addresses wildlife management plans and reclamation plans, among others.