Banned for decades, releasing oilsands tailings water is now on the horizon

The federal government has begun developing regulations to allow oilsands operators in northern Alberta to begin releasing treated tailings water back into the environment, something that's been prohibited for decades.

Currently, companies must store any water used to extract oil during the mining process because it becomes toxic. The massive above-ground lakes are known as tailings ponds, which are harmful to wildlife and have resulted in the death of birds who land on the water, on multiple occasions.

For years, local Indigenous groups have raised concerns about contamination from development, and how tailings ponds could further pollute their land and drinking water.

But now, industry leaders and some scientists are convinced the water can be treated enough so it can be safely discharged and they say it can reduce the environmental risk of storing an ever-increasing volume of tailings.

For decades, oilsands companies have used freshwater to help separate the oil from the sand and other materials found in mines.

Over the years, the industry has improved its techniques to recycle more and more of the water it uses. Still, mines require about three to four barrels of new water to produce one barrel of bitumen. 

After the water is used, it is stored in tailings ponds since the material contains various toxins, bitumen residue and elevated levels of salt.

The tailings ponds in northern Alberta, adjacent to oilsands mines, store about 1.4 trillion litres of waste water. That's the equivalent volume of more than 560,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, which would stretch from Edmonton to Melbourne, Australia, and back if placed end-to-end.

"The biggest challenge is that we have a massive amount of water that needs to be treated," said Mohamed Gamal El-Din, a University of Alberta professor who specializes in oilsands tailings water treatment.

In order to return tailings ponds water to the environment, the water does not need to be clean enough to drink, he said, but safe enough to meet the government's forthcoming standards. It's similar to how towns and cities across the country treat sewage to the point where it can be released to the environment.

In both situations, Gamal El-Din said the fluids can be purified to a point where it can be drinkable water, but municipalities and industry have deemed that too costly.

"There are technologies that can do that," he said, but "it's not economically feasible."

A Crown-Indigenous working group has been working on the creation of oilsands tailings water release standards  since the beginning of the year and the federal government wants to release the draft regulations in 2024 and final regulations in 2025, under the Fisheries Act.

In a statement, Environment and Climate Change Canada said allowing treated wastewater to be released "will help slow the growth of oil sands tailings ponds, and reduce the associated environmental and health risks" of storing the toxic material.