Can oilsands land be reclaimed?
Posted Mar 12, 2012 1:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Syncrude and Suncor engineers are optimistic about their ability to rehabilitate former oilsands sites, but academic researchers have their doubts.
Syncrude Senior Engineer Warren Zubot is working on a pilot project to rebuild a wetland atop an old tailings pond.
Environmentalists who have been studying the oilsands region for nearly two decades, say reclaimed land does not have the same function as the original land.
Jennifer Grant, with the Pembina Institute, says Albertans’, Canadians and people world over want to see efforts ramped up to mitigate the impact of oilsands extraction.
“Canadians at large already expect us to have greater certainty of what the landscape will look like post disturbance before approving new projects,” said Grant.
She adds, if she was grading reclamation efforts so far in northern Alberta, she would have to give producers an incomplete score, saying more work needs to be done.
