Environment and Protected Areas - Surface Water Quality Sampling of the Athabasca River and its Tributaries in the Oil Sands Region

conducts ambient surface water quality monitoring throughout the Athabasca River and its tributaries within the oil sands region. This adaptive monitoring program supports the OSMP mandate by addressing key monitoring questions and evaluating potential effects of oil sands development on aquatic ecosystems. Monitoring is focused on priority watersheds where open-pit mining and in situ oil sands operations, including Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), are active. The program measures a suite of physical, chemical, and biological indicators to detect changes in water quality and assess potential cumulative effects across the watershed. By examining water quality indicators alongside environmental variables associated with natural processes and human activities, the program evaluates whether observed changes are occurring, identifies potential drivers of those changes, and assesses the extent to which they may be associated with oil sands development. The geographic scope of this program covers the Athabasca Oil Sands region. Water quality monitoring includes parameters associated with bitumen-derived compounds (e.g., polycyclic aromatic compounds, vanadium, selenium, etc.); parameters that influence the transport, fate, and cycling of substances of interest (e.g., carbon). Indicators associated with landscape disturbance or altered watershed hydrology and hydrogeology including nutrients, dissolved and suspended solids, and major ions.
The scope of this Service is limited to the collection of surface water quality samples using a grab sampling technique from four mainstem Athabasca River sites and 29 tributary sites in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, see sampling locations in below Fig. 1. Sampling is conducted monthly at all 33 monitoring sites using various modes of transportation. Sampling methodologies shall follow applicable best practices and established Standard Operating Procedures that outline the requirements for sample collection, field measurements, and recording of filed observations.