Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be able to address you.
As Dr. Dixon said, I'm a professor in earth and environmental sciences at Waterloo. My research has really been focused on groundwater issues in the oil sands and in the mining area of the oil sands. I have a number of collaborations at Waterloo, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia. I'm also a member of Suncor's oil sands mine development and reclamation review board; however, I don't represent Suncor or that review board in this presentation. It does give me some additional exposure to the problems that Suncor faces with water, however.
I'm really focusing on the groundwater issues in the oil sands mining area. I recognize that groundwater is perhaps even a more important aspect of the in situ operations, but I don't have any personal research experience in that area.
The major concern in the oil sands mining areas, as Dr. Dixon said, is seepage of process-affected water into aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. My research is really focused on those issues, looking at groundwater as a potential pathway to these receptors. My research has been within the operational phases of the oil sands facilities and really is not being done in the context of the ultimate reclamation. However, the research that we provide I think gives us insight that we can see starting to be incorporated into planning and reclamation.
So in terms of seepage from tailings structures, you've heard testimony about it. My research has examined the migration and fate of contaminants in process-affected water as it moves in the subsurface. The source of this water has been the tailings facilities. Our research, for example, demonstrates that a small fraction of the seepage can escape the current collection systems we have. That information is relayed back to the operators, and it should lead to improved dike seepage collection and maintenance, which seem to be the main issues in allowing some uncontrolled seepage.
You have seen Suncor's Tar Island dike and Pond 1. It's always nice to get a tour of that area. It's a large area. Suncor's Tar Island dike contains Pond 1, the oldest pond in the industry. We've just had accepted a research paper that provides a hydro-geological analysis of the seepage from this pond and dike system, and our findings are consistent with findings of Suncor's consultants over the years. So I don't think we provided much new information to the company. Seepage of process-affected water is occurring from Tar Island dike into the sediments of the Athabasca River, so in a sense I'm delivering a problem to Dr. Dixon now.
The interesting part for us is that the numerical modelling that tries to tie together all the available data suggests the bulk of the seepage water is from the dike, not from the pond. It's a bit of a moot point because the dike in fact was constructed with process-affected water, so the leakage from the dike is chemically very similar to the leakage from ponds. However, since the dikes are dewatering naturally, the impact will be less over time. If it were leaking just from the pond, and if the pond were never reclaimed, you could imagine the leakage continuing over time.
Many of you have seen, I think, Suncor's initial efforts to reclaim Pond 1. I was up there last week, and I think they're on schedule for completion of the removal of the fine tailings this year, and they've actually started placing reclamation material on that pond. So that's some very timely progress.
Waterloo graduate students, technicians, and faculty have also investigated other areas where process-affected water is seeping into groundwater. Again, our research is trying to assess the fate of these chemicals as they move through groundwater. Naphthenic acids have been our focus. We build upon laboratory research at Alberta and Waterloo and in the National Water Research Institute in Saskatoon.
The bottom line so far is that the major toxicants in naphthenic acids don't undergo any significant attenuation in the groundwater system. They're just diluted by the normal weak dispersive processes that occur there.
An interesting aspect of that research has been an attempt to identify whether or not these plumes of process-affected water are leaching toxic metals from the aquifer. The view would be that if the plume was causing the leaching of natural metals, the owner of the plume would be the owner of the metals issue. To date, while iron and manganese have been mobilized, the toxic trace metals, including things like arsenic, show no indication of being mobilized. That research continues, but so far we haven't seen a significant problem in that context.
Seepage, I think, is certainly going to be a continuing problem in the operational phases of these plants. Newer oil sands tailings operations are forced, really by geography, to be located closer to or on top of sandy aquifers, so the potential for water to move into those aquifers and to move away is enhanced. Understanding the hydrogeology relationship between the pond, the dike, the groundwater, and the surface waters nearby will be critical to managing those seepages and minimizing them.
We now recognize that the risk of at least local groundwater contamination is fairly high, so in response researchers are also looking at evaluating potential ways to remediate those situations. One approach is to pump the water out of the ground and treat it on surface. That is consistent with what the oil companies are doing in terms of research to potentially treat their process-affected water in ponds.
Being hydrogeologists, we like to keep our heads in the sand as much as possible, so we're looking at in situ remediation methods. The research is at a very early stage, but what we're looking to do is see if there are any beneficial aspects of adding nutrients or other chemicals to the subsurface to enhance the natural rate of degradation.
What you really want to do is present the companies, the operators, with a number of options for remediating these situations should they occur. We'd rather have those options ready beforehand as opposed to too late.
I think Dr. Dixon has captured our concerns from a research perspective, and I'd like to really just focus on the last issue he brought up, which is this idea of what I would call a catalogue of what's gone on and who's done it. From my perspective as a member of the Canadian Water Network, which project Dr. Dixon leads, and through CONRAD and other venues in talking to colleagues, I'm continually amazed at how much research is actually going on related to water and the oil sands.
Like Dr. Dixon, I have a problem remembering who's doing what or even finding out who's doing what. For instance, we had a presentation a couple of weeks ago. The person from the Alberta Research Council was telling us about three projects that they've been undertaking in the last year, only one of which I was aware of, and those are our colleagues within the Canadian Water Network. Finding out what's going on is difficult for us.
As a researcher, I actually value different approaches. I don't think we want an organization telling us what to do and who's supposed to do what. For example, the different stakeholders have different needs that won't be served by all for one. What I'm really calling for is a way to try to pull the information together to get communication going among the researchers. That will make our work more efficient.
I guess my second concern stems from that. Is there a forum, then, for the research to be discussed? There are numbers of forums. Dr. Dixon often organizes a session within a larger meeting on toxicology. CONRAD organizes a meeting. Special sessions are often organized by various agencies and organizations, but these almost always tend to be well focused and with limited attendance.
What we think would be interesting, but almost impossible to do, is to offer some sort of venue where the research can be discussed and stakeholders can participate. As a member of the Canadian Water Network, I would put it forward as one of the vehicles that could help organize that sort of approach.
So my concerns really are cataloguing what's going on and finding a forum in which to have that discussed openly and freely.
Thank you very much for your time. I'll turn it back to you.