advances in science and applications of air …pubs.awma.org/flip/2019 critical...

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Natural Resources, 2017

2019 Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) Critical Review

Advances in science and applications of air pollution monitoring: A case study on oil sands monitoring targeting ecosystem protection

Dr. Jason M. E. Ahad, Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Québec, QC, [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Overall Summary of Critical Review (CR)

• Provides a summary of work carried out by mainly ECCC scientists working under the framework of the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring Program (JOSM), with a focus mainly on air pollution issues

• Quantification of atmospheric emissions of multiple pollutants needs to be improved as does an understanding of fugitive emissions

• Difficult to separate impacts caused by exposure to natural sources of contaminants (forest fires, eroded bitumen)

• Better coordination between researchers working across different fields (air water, wildlife) is needed


Canada’s oil sands region

• One of the largest proven oil reserves in the world → 165 billion barrels (2016 est.)

• In 2017, total oil sands production (mined and in situ) was around 2.8 million barrels per day

• In 2017, approximately 140,300 people were employed in Alberta’s upstream energy sector

Sources: Gov. Alberta (data);Wikipedia (map)


• Uncemented quartz sand, silt and clay (80-85%), water (4-6%), and bitumen (10-12%)

• Shallow deposits (<75 m) in the Athabasca oil sands region can be exploited by open pit surface mining

• Deeper deposits require in situ extraction methods (e.g., Steam-assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD)

Bitumen highly degraded and viscous form of petroleum

What are oil sands?


Important gaps in the CR(keeping the focus on airborne contamination)

• As pointed out by the authors, the CR mainly focuses on work carried out by ECCC through the JOSM Program

• As a result, the CR does not capture many important “Advances in science and applications of air pollution monitoring” in the OS region… Growing awareness of petroleum coke (petcoke) as a main source

of PAC contamination in the surface mining OS region Current understanding of long range deposition of PACs (e.g., in

the Peace-Athabasca Delta, across the border in Saskatchewan) Metals deposition in the surface mining OS region


AcenaphtheneNaphthalene Acenaphthylene Fluorene

Phenanthrene Anthracene Fluoranthene Pyrene

Benz[a]anthracene Chrysene Benzo[b]fluoranthene Benzo[k]fluoranthene

Benzo[a]pyrene Dibenz[a,h]anthracene Benzo[ghi]perylene

S

CH3

H3C

CH3

Dibenzothiophene

Alkylated PAHs(e.g., C1-Fluorene)

Retene (1-methyl-7-isopropyl phenanthrene)

CH3

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs)

Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene


BitumenUpgraders

Heavy Haulers(diesel)

Highway Traffic

Wildfires

Oil sand dust

Petcokepiles

Potential atmospheric sources of PAHs/PACs in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR)


Petcoke – a major source of PACs to the surrounding environment in the AOSR

2015 2016

2017 2018


Environmental impacts of petcoke dust should thus be a focus of future research

• A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that fugitive dust, and in particular petroleum coke (petcoke) dust, is the main vector for mining-related PACs to the surrounding environment

• As a result, future toxicological research might want to focus on better understanding the bioavailability of petcoke

2017


Are mining-related PACs reaching the Peace-Athabasca Delta (~ 150 km N of operations)?

Hall et al., 2012, PloS one

Sediment cores collected from several lakes in the PAD recording different hydrological conditions

over past century

Flood-prone vsnot flood-prone


• No measureable increase in the concentration and proportion of river-transported bitumen-associated PACs in sediments deposited in a flood-prone lake since onset of oil sands development

• No evidence that industrial activity has contributed measurably to sedimentary concentration of PACs supplied by atmospheric transport

• Findings suggests natural erosion of exposed bitumen is a major process delivering PACs to the PAD

Hall et al., 2012, PloS one


Are mining-related PACs crossing the border into Saskatchewan (100-220 km E of operations)?

Ahad et al., 2015, Organic Geochemistry


0 2 4 6 8 10 12 140 2 4 6 8 10 12 14Est

imat

ed C

RS

dat

e (y

r)

1900

1920

1940

1960

1980

2000

parentalkyl

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

S parent or alkylated PAH fluxes (Sg m-2 yr-1)0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

10W8D 13C10G

Increases in PAH fluxes in these lakes over the past several decades

Adapted from Ahad et al., 2015, Organic Geochemistry


Res

idua

l Car

bon

/ TO

C

Yearδ13C value of Athabasca OS PAHs Char

50 µm

δ13 C

(‰)

Ahad et al., 2015, Organic Geochemistry


Oil sands surface mining – not a major source of metals contamination to the local environment

2014


2017

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