This review is part of a series synthesizing peer‐reviewed literature from the past decade on environmental monitoring in the oil sands region (OSR) of northeastern Alberta. It focuses on atmospheric emissions, air quality, and deposition in and downwind of the OSR. Most published monitoring and research activities were concentrated in the surface‐mineable region in the Athabasca OSR. Substantial progress has been made in understanding oil sands (OS)‐related emission sources using multiple approaches: airborne measurements, satellite measurements, source emission testing, deterministic modeling, and source apportionment modeling. These approaches generally yield consistent results, indicating OS‐related sources are regional contributors to nearly all air pollutants. Most pollutants exhibit enhanced air concentrations within ~20 km of surface‐mining activities, with some enhanced >100 km downwind. Some pollutants (e.g., sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides) undergo transformations as they are transported through the atmosphere. Deposition rates of OS‐related substances primarily emitted as fugitive dust are enhanced within ~30 km of surface‐mining activities, whereas gaseous and fine particulate emissions have a more diffuse deposition enhancement pattern extending hundreds of kilometers downwind. In general, air quality guidelines are not exceeded, although these single‐pollutant thresholds are not comprehensive indicators of air quality. Odor events have occurred in communities near OS industrial activities, although it can be difficult to attribute events to specific pollutants or sources. Nitrogen, sulfur, polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), and base cations from OS sources occur in the environment, but explicit and deleterious responses of organisms to these pollutants are not as apparent across all study environments; details of biological monitoring are discussed further in other papers in this special series. However, modeling of critical load exceedances suggests that, at continued emission levels, ecological change may occur in future. Knowledge gaps and recommendations for future work to address these gaps are also presented. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:333–360. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
This article is part of the special series "A Decade of Research and Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada." The series documents the history of monitoring in the region and critically reviews a synthesis of monitoring results published within key environmental theme areas to identify patterns of consistent responses or effects; significant gaps in knowledge; and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment, and management of the region.
Two speciated and spatially resolved emissions databases for polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR) were developed. The first database was derived from volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions data provided by the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) and the second database was derived from additional data collected within the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring (JOSM) program. CALPUFF modelling results for atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs, and dibenzothiophenes (DBTs), obtained using each of the emissions databases, are presented and compared with measurements from a passive air monitoring network. The JOSMderived emissions resulted in better model-measurement agreement in the total PAH concentrations and for most PAH species concentrations compared to results using CEMAderived emissions. At local sites near oil sands mines, the percent error of the model compared to observations decreased from 30 % using the CEMA-derived emissions to 17 % using the JOSM-derived emissions. The improvement at local sites was likely attributed to the inclusion of updated tailings pond emissions estimated from JOSM activities. In either the CEMA-derived or JOSM-derived emissions scenario, the model underestimated PAH concentrations by a factor of 3 at remote locations. Potential reasons for the disagreement include forest fire emissions, re-emissions of previously deposited PAHs, and long-range transport not con-sidered in the model. Alkylated PAH and DBT concentrations were also significantly underestimated. The CALPUFF model is expected to predict higher concentrations because of the limited chemistry and deposition modelling. Thus the model underestimation of PACs is likely due to gaps in the emissions database for these compounds and uncertainties in the methodology for estimating the emissions. Future work is required that focuses on improving the PAC emissions estimation and speciation methodologies and reducing the uncertainties in VOC emissions which are subsequently used in PAC emissions estimation.
Abstract. Two speciated and spatially-resolved emissions databases for polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR) were developed. The first database was derived from volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions data provided by the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) and the second database was derived from additional data collected within the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands 15Monitoring (JOSM) program. CALPUFF modelling results for atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), alkylated PAH, and dibenzothiophenes (DBT), obtained using each of the emissions databases, are presented and compared with measurements from a passive air monitoring network. The JOSM-derived emissions resulted in better model-measurement agreement in the total PAH concentrations and for most PAH species concentrations, compared to results using CEMA-derived emissions. At local sites near oil sands mines, the percent error of the 20 model compared to observations decreased from 30% using the CEMA-derived emissions to 17% using the JOSMderived emissions. The improvement at local sites was likely attributed to the inclusion of updated tailings pond emissions estimated from JOSM activities. In either the CEMA-derived or JOSM-derived emissions scenario, the model underestimated PAH concentrations by a factor of 3 at remote locations. Potential reasons for the disagreement include forest fire emissions, re-emissions of previously deposited PAHs, and long-range transport not 25 considered in the model. Alkylated PAH and DBT concentrations were also significantly underestimated. The CALPUFF model is expected to predict higher concentrations because of the limited chemistry and deposition modelling. Thus the model underestimation of PACs is likely due to gaps in the emissions database for these compounds and uncertainties in the methodology for estimating the emissions. Future work is required that focuses on improving the PAC emission estimation and speciation methodologies and reducing the uncertainties in VOC 30 emissions which are subsequently used in PAC emissions estimation.Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi
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