Oil Sands Question and Response (OSQAR) Blog

Water efficiency: a problem shared is a problem halved

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Imagine if every home in your neighbourhood had its own wastewater treatment plant. Instead of patios, swinging hammocks or herb gardens, backyards would feature storage ponds, filter beds and a labyrinth of pipes and valves.

Industry looking to checkmate tailings in this match

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The World Chess Championship, Reykjavik, Iceland 1972. The Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky, defending champion, is defeated by Bobby Fischer of the United States. Dubbed the Match of the Century, it was hailed as one of the greatest single applications of human intellect.

Does new tailings report offer ingredients for pond be gone?

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Oil sands tailings – what’s left after the raw sand has been processed to extract the useful bitumen – has always been a complex challenge for the industry.

One of these things is not like the others

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Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), announced last week, certainly isn’t the first industry organization formed to address the environmental challenges of oil sands development.

My jeans cost 1800! Water, the new currency

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Looking at all the flood warnings on the news, you could be forgiven for thinking that we are awash in water.

How Low Should We Go? Athabasca River water use

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Oil sands operators want to use as little water as possible. The more we withdraw, the more we have to treat. And, ultimately, the more we will have to store in tailings ponds at the same time we’re trying to reduce them. Using less water is not just good public relations: it makes sense for the river, and it makes sense for our operations.

What’s being done to protect the Athabasca River?

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A major concern for stakeholders near the oil sands is the health of Alberta’s Athabasca River.  Not only does it provide drinking water for a number of riverside communities as well as feed Lake Athabasca, from which First Nations take their fish, it is also a source of water for the industry itself.