February 2007 ISSUE

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Artistry Meets Science to Reclaim Open Pit Mines

Meet one of the people who help Syncrude put the
land back together for future generations

BY WILL GIBSON
Syncrude Writer

GREEN FUTURE Oil sands mining may leave a scar, but it won't be there forever. Syncrude, for example, is continually reclaiming land and investing in reclamation research (above), to make the land more amenable to all kinds of life, such as the bison shown below.

Wearing an orange hard hat and carrying a massive binder bulging with flow charts, calculations and artist renditions, Bruce Friesen, P.Eng., will never be mistaken for Tom Thomson or A.Y. Jackson — at least not at first glance.

Although he carts around no easel, the Manitoba-born engineer does have the visionary eye of a landscape artist. Whereas Thomson, Jackson and other Group of Seven artists reproduced Canadian scenery through daubing oil on canvas, Mr. Friesen and his Syncrude colleagues have recreated forested landscapes from 70-metre-deep, open pit mines in northeastern Alberta.

“The science of land reclamation has evolved and changed over the past 30 years and so have the expectations placed on us by regulators and stakeholders,” says Mr. Friesen, Syncrude’s manager of land and environment. “Even before Syncrude began building our Mildred Lake complex to process bitumen into crude, we were studying how to return this land to nature.”

Most of the oil sands deposit on Syncrude’s leases north of Fort McMurray lies about 50 metres beneath the huge expanse of boreal forest in northeastern Alberta. In order to get to this oil-soaked earth, electric and hydraulic shovels take off the surface layer, which is put aside for later use in reclaiming the land. Removing a thick band of sand and clay material, called overburden, exposes the oil sands, which sits on a limestone bed.

After an area is mined out, lease terms with the Alberta Government require oil sands companies to put the land back together into a productive landscape, one that’s capable of supporting economic, recreational and traditional uses for future generations. That’s where reclamation science and engineering know-how come in.

“Land reclamation,” explains Mr. Friesen,” isn’t as simple as refilling the holes with dirt and planting trees on top.”

In addition to overburden, Syncrude starts the process with tailings, the unwanted water, silt and clay particles left once bitumen is extracted from oil sand. In their natural state, these porridge-like tailings are not solid enough to be used as a reclamation building block.

To create that stability, Syncrude blends fine tails with gypsum and sand, a process that squeezes out the water.

The resulting composite tails are put in the pit and covered with more sand and contoured by massive equipment, under the direction of geotechnical engineers. “Contouring the land is very important in providing for proper drainage and streams,” Mr. Friesen says.  “It also helps us deal with factors such as erosion.”

Once the landscape has been reshaped, a final layer of nutrient-rich soil — gathered in advance of active mining faces — blankets the new landscape. Syncrude then plants seedlings of trees, bushes and other flora native to northeastern Alberta.

“We consult with our Aboriginal neighbours on land reclamation, as they are an important stakeholder,” says Mr. Friesen. “We rely on the knowledge of elders to guide us on which plants and shrubs of traditional importance, or those with medicinal value, that we can use in our reclaimed landscapes.”
Syncrude also invests in science, spending millions of dollars annually in research and development on land reclamation. “We have formed several key partnerships with universities, which have really helped us move forward with the evolving expectations in this area,” Mr. Friesen says.

One such advance, called water capping, will be unveiled in 2012 in the form of a new lake on a former mine site. Instead of earth that’s been moved there, fresh water is layered over a deposit of fine tailings over several years to eventually form a lake. This will evolve into a natural ecosystem that supports healthy communities of aquatic plants and fish.

“Tests at our research ponds show water capping breaks down the naturally occurring organic compounds within the tailings in about three years,” notes Mr. Friesen.

By 2006 Mr. Friesen and his colleagues had planted more than 4.5 million seedlings on 4,600 hectares of reclaimed land. That’s an area larger than the combined town sites of Jasper and Banff, or roughly about one quarter of the size of Elk Island National Park.

“More importantly, we are now reclaiming land at the original Base Mine at a faster rate than we disturb it,” Friesen says. “One day, the open pit you now see will be habitat for all sorts of wildlife. It isn’t easy to see, but it is doable with a lot of hard work.”

And a vision worthy of the Group of Seven.