Fate and transport of process affected water in out-of-pit tailings ponds in the oil sands industry in Canada

油砂行业目前每年生产4亿桶石油，预计到2030年将增加到18.25亿桶。每生产一桶石油，就会伴随着1.25立方米的尾矿。这相当于从现在到2030年，尾矿产量将从每年5亿立方米增加到22.8亿立方米。目前的尾矿管理计划包括建造矿坑外尾矿池，用于储存和处置尾矿和相关的受工艺影响的水。在这些矿坑外尾矿库的设计中面临的一个挑战是存在地区性的埋藏砂道，这可能是PA渗水的优先流动路径。初步模拟预测了PA渗漏到邻近沙槽的渗透，但这种影响的程度尚不清楚。

The oil sands industry presently produces 400 million barrels of oil annually and is expected to increase to 1,825 million barrels by 2030. Each barrel of oil produced is accompanied by 1.25 m3 of tailings. This corresponds to an increase in tailings production from 500 to 2,280 million m3 annually from now to 2030. Current tailings management plans include the construction of out-of-pit tailings ponds for the storage and disposal of tailings and associated process-affected (PA) water. A challenge faced in the design of these out-of-pit tailings ponds is the presence of regionally occurring buried sand channels that may act as preferential flow paths of PA water seepage. Preliminary modeling predicts the infiltration of PA seepage into the adjacent sand channels, however the extent of this impact is poorly understood.