Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers
In the Alberta oil sands region, insufficient knowledge of pre-disturbance reference conditions has undermined the ability of the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) to detect pollution of the Athabasca River, because sampling began three decades after the industry started and the river natu...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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2014
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 https://doaj.org/article/e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f 2023-09-05T13:17:55+02:00 Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers Johan A Wiklund Roland I Hall Brent B Wolfe Thomas WD Edwards Andrea J Farwell D George Dixon 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 https://doaj.org/article/e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f Environmental Research Letters, Vol 9, Iss 12, p 124019 (2014) Alberta oil sands river sediment quality monitoring metal pollution reference conditions lake sediments Peace-Athabasca Delta Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 2023-08-13T00:37:22Z In the Alberta oil sands region, insufficient knowledge of pre-disturbance reference conditions has undermined the ability of the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) to detect pollution of the Athabasca River, because sampling began three decades after the industry started and the river naturally erodes oil-bearing strata. Here, we apply a novel approach to characterize pre-industrial reference metal concentrations in river sediment downstream of Alberta oil sands development by analyzing metal concentrations in sediments deposited in floodplain lakes of the Athabasca Delta during 1700–1916, when they were strongly influenced by Athabasca River floodwaters. We compared results to metal concentrations in surficial bottom sediments sampled by RAMP (2010–2013) at downstream sites of the Athabasca River and distributaries. When normalized to lithium content, concentrations of vanadium (a metal of concern in the oil sands region) and other priority pollutants (Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn) in nearly all of the RAMP river sediment samples lie below the upper 95% prediction interval linearly extrapolated from the river-derived lake sediments. Assuming the RAMP protocols obtained recently deposited sediment, this indicates that the metal concentrations in downstream Athabasca River sediment have not increased above pre-disturbance levels. Reference conditions derived from the lake sediment data were used to develop profiles of metal residual concentrations versus time for the RAMP river sediment data, which provides an excellent tool for decision-makers to identify and quantify levels of metal pollution for any given sample, and to monitor for future trends. We recommend that the approach be applied to resurrect the utility of RAMP data at other river sampling locations closer to the development, and for ongoing risk assessment. The approach is also readily transferable to other rivers where insufficient pre-disturbance reference data impairs an ability to determine if industrial activities are polluting ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Athabasca River Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Athabasca River Peace-Athabasca Delta ENVELOPE(-111.502,-111.502,58.667,58.667) The Ramp ENVELOPE(-38.305,-38.305,-53.990,-53.990) Environmental Research Letters 9 12 124019 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Alberta oil sands river sediment quality monitoring metal pollution reference conditions lake sediments Peace-Athabasca Delta Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Alberta oil sands river sediment quality monitoring metal pollution reference conditions lake sediments Peace-Athabasca Delta Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Johan A Wiklund Roland I Hall Brent B Wolfe Thomas WD Edwards Andrea J Farwell D George Dixon Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
topic_facet |
Alberta oil sands river sediment quality monitoring metal pollution reference conditions lake sediments Peace-Athabasca Delta Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
In the Alberta oil sands region, insufficient knowledge of pre-disturbance reference conditions has undermined the ability of the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) to detect pollution of the Athabasca River, because sampling began three decades after the industry started and the river naturally erodes oil-bearing strata. Here, we apply a novel approach to characterize pre-industrial reference metal concentrations in river sediment downstream of Alberta oil sands development by analyzing metal concentrations in sediments deposited in floodplain lakes of the Athabasca Delta during 1700–1916, when they were strongly influenced by Athabasca River floodwaters. We compared results to metal concentrations in surficial bottom sediments sampled by RAMP (2010–2013) at downstream sites of the Athabasca River and distributaries. When normalized to lithium content, concentrations of vanadium (a metal of concern in the oil sands region) and other priority pollutants (Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn) in nearly all of the RAMP river sediment samples lie below the upper 95% prediction interval linearly extrapolated from the river-derived lake sediments. Assuming the RAMP protocols obtained recently deposited sediment, this indicates that the metal concentrations in downstream Athabasca River sediment have not increased above pre-disturbance levels. Reference conditions derived from the lake sediment data were used to develop profiles of metal residual concentrations versus time for the RAMP river sediment data, which provides an excellent tool for decision-makers to identify and quantify levels of metal pollution for any given sample, and to monitor for future trends. We recommend that the approach be applied to resurrect the utility of RAMP data at other river sampling locations closer to the development, and for ongoing risk assessment. The approach is also readily transferable to other rivers where insufficient pre-disturbance reference data impairs an ability to determine if industrial activities are polluting ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Johan A Wiklund Roland I Hall Brent B Wolfe Thomas WD Edwards Andrea J Farwell D George Dixon |
author_facet |
Johan A Wiklund Roland I Hall Brent B Wolfe Thomas WD Edwards Andrea J Farwell D George Dixon |
author_sort |
Johan A Wiklund |
title |
Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
title_short |
Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
title_full |
Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
title_fullStr |
Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of Alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
title_sort |
use of pre-industrial floodplain lake sediments to establish baseline river metal concentrations downstream of alberta oil sands: a new approach for detecting pollution of rivers |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 https://doaj.org/article/e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-111.502,-111.502,58.667,58.667) ENVELOPE(-38.305,-38.305,-53.990,-53.990) |
geographic |
Athabasca River Peace-Athabasca Delta The Ramp |
geographic_facet |
Athabasca River Peace-Athabasca Delta The Ramp |
genre |
Athabasca River |
genre_facet |
Athabasca River |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 9, Iss 12, p 124019 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/e86d919101264a4eb6d6c34ac1ffbe1f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124019 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
124019 |
_version_ |
1776199012757536768 |