We show that the oil sands industry releases the 13 elements considered priority pollutants (PPE) under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act, via air and water, to the Athabasca River and its watershed. In the 2008 snowpack, all PPE except selenium were greater near oil sands developments than at more remote sites. Bitumen upgraders and local oil sands development were sources of airborne emissions. Concentrations of mercury, nickel, and thallium in winter and all 13 PPE in summer were greater in tributaries with watersheds more disturbed by development than in less disturbed watersheds. In the Athabasca River during summer, concentrations of all PPE were greater near developed areas than upstream of development. At sites downstream of development and within the Athabasca Delta, concentrations of all PPE except beryllium and selenium remained greater than upstream of development. Concentrations of some PPE at one location in Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan were also greater than concentration in the Athabasca River upstream of development. Canada’s or Alberta’s guidelines for the protection of aquatic life were exceeded for seven PPE—cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, and zinc—in melted snow and/or water collected near or downstream of development.

/pdf/oil-sands-development-contributes-elements-toxic-at-low-3vj015k4w8.pdf

Oil sands development contributes elements toxic at low concentrations to the Athabasca River and its tributaries

Effects of acidification on the availability of toxic metals and calcium to wild birds and mammals.

Phytoremediation offers owners and managers of metal-contaminated sites an innovative and cost-effective option to address recalcitrant environmental contaminants. The use of plants or plant products to restore or stabilize contaminated sites, collectively known as phytoremediation, takes advantage of the natural abilities of plants to take up, accumulate, store, or degrade organic and inorganic substances. Although not a new concept, phytoremediation is currently being re-examined as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective means of reducing metal contaminated soil and other substrates throughout North America and Europe. Processes include using plants that tolerate and accumulate metals at high levels (phytoextraction) and using plants that can grow under conditions that are toxic to other plants while preventing, for example, soil erosion (phytostabilization) [1]. Governments worldwide are establishing research and demonstration programs to use this potential [2-6]. Environment Canada has developed a database (PHYTOREM) of 775 plants with capabilities to accumulate or hyperaccumulate one or several of 19 key metallic elements. This chapter addresses key research, potential benefits and limitations, and the potential future needs for phytoremediation. Issues related to intellectual property law, commercialization and public acceptance are touched on.

Phytoremediation of heavy metals from soils.

Population dynamics of the Common Loon (Gavia immer) associated with mercury-contaminated waters in northwestern Ontario

Spatial and temporal trends of contaminants in Canadian Arctic freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems: a review.

Cadmium levels in Ontario moose and deer in relation to soil sensitivity to acid precipitation.

Clinical, necropsy, bacteriologic, parasitologic, histopathologic, toxicologic and animal inoculation studies suggest that organochlorine (PCB, dieldrin and DDE) poisoning was an important factor in causing deaths of free-flying ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) in southern Ontario in 1969 and 1973. The brains of gulls dying with clinical signs of neurologic involvement, and dead gulls with no other apparent cause of death, contained organochlorine residues of significantly greater levels than those found in healthy gulls shot for comparison.

E.M. Addison

Papers

Cadmium levels in Ontario moose and deer in relation to soil sensitivity to acid precipitation.

Organochlorine poisoning of ring-billed gulls in southern Ontario.