The Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) Project aimed to better understand hydrological impacts and recovery following watershed disturbances. FORWARD I began in 2001 with an initial focus on recovery forestry and fires. By its third iteration (FORWARD III, project code: LJ0009), the project’s scope expanded to include recovery following reclamation of oil sands mine sites. This project illustrated the crucial role that wetlands play in buffering ecosystems from the impacts of disturbances on hydrological function and water quality. 

Over a decade of continuous monitoring data on watershed recovery makes this project essential to understanding restoration success. Reclamation experts can compare vegetation complexes, bio-indicators, toxicity metrics, and reclaimed soil characteristics to this dataset to better understand reclamation success. Mathematical models developed by this project can also be used to determine mine site watershed load and contaminant fates. 

Results and modeling from the FORWARD project have led to improved forestry and reclamation management practices and planning. Read more in this Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance Project (FORWARD) Summary Article, or inquire internally to access the 2018 Technical Transfer Manuscript and other project materials.

Reclamation is a challenge because restored ecosystems need to not only look like natural areas but also have similar ecological functions. The HEAD Project (Hydrology, Ecology and Disturbance in the Western Boreal Forest, project code: LL0055) investigated this issue in the Utikuma Region. By comparing the hydrology of natural and reclaimed systems, this project has informed better strategies and guidelines for integrated land management at provincial and federal levels.  

Over a decade of research has revealed that mapping hydrologic units based on soil characteristics and landforms provides a more accurate water cycle model than mapping based on topographical drainage networks. This project has improved hydrological models, developed planning tools for cumulative risk assessment, and established soil and water indicators to guide management and reclamation. The breadth of this project has informed everything from overall hydrological concepts to technical details for reclamation design to guidance for day-to-day operations.  

A workshop for operators, regulators, and other stakeholders has helped get this information into the hands that need it. Learn more via the Conceptualizing Water Movement in the Boreal Plains: Implications for Watershed Reconstruction document.

Understanding and mitigating seepage from oil sands tailings water is essential for reclamation success. To better understand these impacts on soil, water and vegetation, Syncrude ran a long-term research program at a storage facility from 1997 to 2011 (project code: LJ0206).

This program confirmed that slope position and landform structure were key variables in area and extent of contaminant impact. It also evaluated containment strategies such as underdrain installation and soil capping. Critical data from this body of work has led to better reclamation designs, improving revegetation and overall environmental recovery. Inquire internally to view the 2016 Synthesis Report.

The NSERC/Syncrude Industrial Research Chair in Mine Closure Geochemistry (project code: LJ0292) was established at the University of Saskatchewan in 2014 with the goal of developing geochemical and conceptual models to improve closure planning for oil sands mines.  

Through extensive interdisciplinary field and laboratory studies, this project has provided valuable insights into biogeochemical characteristics of centrifuged fine tailings, metal mobility in coke deposits, salt and metal transport in layered waste systems, and salt transport within reclamation soil covers. Understanding how contaminants in waste deposits move and interact is essential to improving the closure practices aimed at keeping them contained. Read more in the Final Cumulative Summary in the 2019 COSIA Mine Report and explore the links below to view graduate theses and journal publications resulting from this IRC.

Published MSc Theses

• Impacts of mineral surface reactions on aqueous vanadate attenuation 
• Trace element mobility in layered oil sands mine wastes
• Characterizing the physical and chemical transport of dissolved salts in layered oil sands mine
• Geochemical investigation of fluid petroleum coke deposits at an oil sands mine in northern Alberta, Canada
• Biogeochemical investigation of centrifuged fine tailings deposits at an oil sands mine in northern Alberta, Canada
• Metal leaching from oil sands fluid petroleum coke under varied geochemical conditions
• Geochemical implications of gypsum addition to oil sands fluid fine tailings

Journal Publications

• Mineralogy and geochemistry of oil sands froth treatment tailings: Implications for acid generation and metal(loid) release 
• Aqueous- and solid-phase molybdenum geochemistry of oil sands fluid petroleum coke deposits, Alberta, Canada 
• Sodium transport and attenuation in soil cover materials for oil sands mine reclamation 
• Nickel geochemistry of oil sands fluid petroleum coke deposits, Alberta, Canada 
• Vanadium geochemistry of oil sands fluid petroleum coke