Acid Sensitive Lakes, Oil Sands Region

Acid-Sensitive Lakes

Nine hundred and thirty-three lakes located in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories were sampled to establish current acidification status. Of the 933 lakes, 244 (or 26%) are considered acid sensitive, almost always because of naturally low calcium and magnesium (or "base cation") concentrations. The most acid-sensitive lakes (i.e., those with extremely low base cation concentrations) are located on the Canadian Shield in both Alberta and Saskatchewan and east of the oils sands development area.

Fifty-one of the 244 acid-sensitive lakes were sampled twice annually (spring and fall) to identify chemical changes through trend analyses. Results revealed that 55% of these lakes had concentrations of some metals in excess of Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guidelines. Of the 291 samples taken in the 51 lakes, iron concentrations were greater than guidelines in 36% (105 samples), aluminum in 33% (97 samples), lead in 0.3% (1 sample) and copper in 0.3% (1 sample). The metals in these lakes occur naturally and are expected to be found in a wide range of concentrations given the geology and physiography of the Canadian Shield. It remains to establish the relationship between acid sensitivity, geology and high metal concentrations.

Date ( RI_367 ): 2014-05-22

Date ( RI_366 ): 2014-05-20

Date ( RI_368 ): 2016-04-25

RI_414

Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Water Science and Technology / Aquatic Contaminants Research Division - ACRD Data Management Team

867 Lakeshore Rd. , Burlington , Ontario , L7S 1A1 , Canada

Status: onGoing; enContinue RI_596

RI_414

Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Water Science and Technology / Aquatic Contaminants Research Division - ACRD Data Management Team

867 Lakeshore Rd. , Burlington , Ontario , L7S 1A1 , Canada

RI_409

Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Water Science and Technology / Aquatic Contaminants Research Division - Office of director / Bureau du directeur ( ACRD Data Management Team )

105 McGill St. , Montreal , Quebec , H2Y 2E7 , Canada

Maintenance and update frequency: asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540

Keywords ( RI_528 )

oil sands, monitoring, atmospheric deposition, contaminant, acidification, metals, nutrients, major ions, acid sensitivity, water quality

Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )

Oil sands
Lakes

ECCC Information Category EN ECCC Information Category FR ( RI_528 )

Water - Quality

Business Functions Fonctions de l'entreprise ( RI_528 )

Assess Toxicity, Manage and Monitor for Environmental Presence of Hazardous Substances and Waste
Monitor / Assess Substance and Waste Levels in Air, Water, Soil, Biota

Branch Direction Générale ( RI_528 )

Science and Technology Branch

Directorate Direction ( RI_528 )

Water Science and Technology

Environment Canada - Program Environment Canada - Program ( RI_528 )

1.3.2. Ecosystem Assessment and Approaches

GC Security Level GC Restrictions de manipulation ( RI_528 )

Unclassified

Geography Portée Géographique ( Place )

Prairie - Alberta (AB)
Prairie - Saskatchewan (SK)
Territories - Northwest Territories (NT)

Use limitation: Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)

Access constraints: license; licence RI_606

Use constraints: license; licence RI_606

Spatial representation type: vector; vecteur RI_635

Metadata language: eng; CAN

Character set: utf8; utf8 RI_458

Topic category

Environment

Begin date: 2012-02-01

Supplemental Information: Atmospheric deposition of stack emissions, mining operations particulates and emissions from tailings ponds has been identified as a possible significant source of both direct and indirect oil sands contaminant loadings to the Athabasca River basin.

The goal of the air deposition monitoring program is to provide the necessary data to address the following questions:

1. What is the direct atmospheric deposition of key contaminants to the surface of the Athabasca River and its tributaries?

2. What is the atmospheric deposition to the landscape and acid-sensitive lakes in the Lower Athabasca basin?

3. How does the atmospheric deposition affect water quality in the lakes, tributaries and mainstem?

Supporting Projects:

Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring