Bioremediation of groundwater systems impacted by oil sands tailings ponds

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The oil sands industry presently produces 400 million barrels of oil annually; each barrel is accompanied by 1.25 m3 of tailings. Tailings and associated process-affected water are stored and disposed of in constructed out-of-pit tailings ponds. One of the major threats from tailings ponds is the migration of pollutants into the groundwater system. A University of Alberta research program funded by Suncor began in 2006 to quantify the extent of this impact, and assess chemical oxidation as a remediation option. This NSERC Discovery Program provides the opportunity to undertake a higher risk approach by examining the feasibility of bioremediation, the use of indigenous microorganisms to transform contaminants to non-harmful end products, as an alternate remediation option.