Alberta announces new challenge aimed at transforming tailings ponds

Tailings ponds have been an oilsands byproduct since drilling began in Alberta. Now, the province is launching a challenge for industry to find solutions.

Alberta has announced $50 million in funding to help entice companies to come up with new and improved technologies to reduce oil sands mine water and reclaim tailings ponds.

The province announced the Tailings Technology Challenge at a news conference in Calgary on Tuesday.

“We look forward to seeing the innovative solutions that come out of this funding challenge,” said Rebecca Schulz, minister of environment and protected areas.

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“We need to shift this work into overdrive. We need more advanced technologies to help reduce, treat and manage mined water,” the minister added.

Oil sands processing creates leftover water called tailings that need to be properly managed. In the oil sands, tailings are a mixture of water, sand, clay and residual bitumen that are the byproduct of the oil extraction process.

“Tailings and mine water management remains among the most significant challenges facing Alberta’s energy sector,” said Justin Riemer, Emissions Reduction Alberta CEO.

Schulz said Alberta has an estimated 1.4 billion cubic metres of fluid tailings and 390 million cubic metres of water.

That’s comparable to 560,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“Innovation has always played an instrumental role in the oil sands and continues to be an area of focus,” said Kendall Dilling, Pathways Alliance president.

Dilling later added, “We’re in that stage of accumulating a lot of tailings and fluids that will in due course be reclaimed. Some of the very original ponds have now been reclaimed and returned to a workable landscape.”

However, an environmental geology professor says there isn’t evidence any of Alberta’s tailings ponds have been fully restored.

“We haven’t figured out how to get the water out of the fine sands so they can be restored. Basically, no tailings pond has been restored that I’m aware of in Alberta,” said Cathy Ryan, from the earth, energy and environment department at the University of Calgary.

She says technological improvements are necessary as current methods to clean them up are very slow.

“Maybe there’s technologies being applied in other industries elsewhere in the world that we’re not even aware of, things that we can bring to bear to speed up that process,” said Dilling.

The Tailings Technology Challenge is open to oil sands operators and technology providers until Sept. 24.

Eligible technologies include both engineered and natural solutions.

“Innovation has always played an instrumental role in the oil sands and continues to be an area of focus,” said Kendall Dilling, Pathways Alliance president.

“Oil sands companies are collaborating and investing to advance environmental technologies, including many focused on mine water and tailings management.”

“We’re excited to see this initiative, as announced today, seeking to explore technology development in an area that’s important to all Albertans.”

The money for the challenge is from the industry-funded Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Regulation (TIER) fund.