Fate and developmental effects of oil sands-derived polyaromatic hydrocarbons and naphthenic acids in amphipods and amphibians

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There is little doubt about the positive impact of Canada's oil sands industry on jobs and the economy. Because of natural bitumen deposits in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada ranks third in proven crude oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The economic benefits from the production of ~1.31 million barrels of oil a day in 2012 and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs has been a boost to Canada during this period of otherwise limited economic growth. This is very good news for Canadians. However, oil sands production remains controversial. Potential negative environmental impacts are evident in some areas. This can result from mining activities, and possible contamination of waterways from spills of the oil sands processed waters, and, downstream and downwind aerial deposition of contaminants. This is raising the concern of government agencies, citizens and industry for regulatory action and implementation of a sound, feasible, and affordable risk assessment and monitoring strategies. We propose to develop novel methodologies that determine the fate and effects of contaminants associated with bitumen extraction. This targets the strategic research area in Environmental Science and Technologies. Our team focuses on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs (aPAHs), dibenzothiophenes (collectively called the polyaromatic compounds or PACs) and naphthenic acids (NAs). There are many of these chemicals from oil sands that are poorly classified, yet are potentially toxic. Some have the ability to upset animal development and hormonal systems. We will measure them, and provide guidelines on toxicity and sustainable methods of exploitations that would minimize impact. We focus on aquatic amphipods (small crustacean) and frog tadpoles to determine pathways of exposure because of their importance in the ecosystem, and because they are bio-indicator species. We will develop novel biologically based tools to determine toxicity and sub-lethal effects on development and metamorphosis. These scientific results will be communicated to our industrial, governmental and community partners though regular meeting and conference calls, in addition to scientific and general publications. Importantly, under the framework of this proposal, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers will interact with our contributing partners to gain intensive training in the emerging methods and technologies in environmental sciences, and therefore will be highly competitive in the job market.