Land

Canada's petroleum industry is legally obligated to reclaim all disturbed land to a productive state, and is committed to return the land to an equivalent capability once production is complete.

Oil sands development is subject to environmental standards that are among the most stringent in the world. A plan to restore the land must be developed and approved by government as part of the project's approval process.

In Alberta's oil sands about 67 square kilometres are under active reclamation, and significant investment by industry and government continues into better reclamation technology and techniques.

• Syncrude Canada - Gateway Hill area - recently became the first oil sands lease to receive a final reclamation certificate from the government.

Strict Canadian environmental regulations have demanded that Canadian engineers and scientists develop innovative remedial technologies to clean-up a broad spectrum of contaminants, such as:

• petroleum hydrocarbons
• chlorinated solvents
• wood preservatives
• metals
• herbicides / pesticides
• Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE)
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB)

Clean-up technologies used include:

• in-situ air sparging
• soil vapour extraction
• vacuum-enhanced multi-phase extraction
• interception trenches
• permeable reactive barriers
• pump and treat
• funnel and gate
• in-situ chemical oxidation
• enhanced bioremediation

Land - Resource Center