The stable isotopes of site wide waters at an oil sands mine in northern Alberta, Canada

Baer, T.A.; Barbour, S. Lee; Gibson, J. J.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.08.017

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As reported in previous work [13], the samples with relatively low local slopes are mainly distributed in the Western US, and the distribution exhibits correlation with topography or physiographic region. In Canada, the data in Group 2 are mainly located at rivers effected by lakes, which are also reported in some of data source papers (e.g., North Alberta effected by Mildred Lake [63], Baker Creek effected by Pocket Lake [64]). These data with low local slopes consequently form a line with low slope on a continental scale.…”

Section: Relationship Between δ 18 O and δ 2 H In River Waterssupporting

confidence: 63%

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Nan

Tian

et al. 2019

Water

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Stable isotopes of O and H in water are meaningful indicators of hydrological and ecological patterns and processes. The Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) and the Global Network of Isotopes in Rivers (GNIR) are the two most important global databases of isotopes in precipitation and rivers. While the data of GNIP is almost globally distributed, GNIR has an incomplete spatial coverage, which hinders the utilization of river isotopes to study global hydrological cycle. To fill this knowledge gap, this study supplements GNIR and provides a river isotope database with global-coverage by the meta-analysis method, i.e., collecting 17015 additional data points from 215 published articles. Based on the newly compiled database, we find that (1) the relationship between δ18O and δ2H in river waters exhibits an asymmetric imbricate feature, and bifurcation can be observed in Africa and North America, indicating the effect of evaporation on isotopes; (2) multiple regression analysis with geographical factors indicates that spatial patterns of river isotopes are quite different across regions; (3) multiple regression with geographical and meteorological factors can well predict the river isotopes, which provides regional regression models with r2 of 0.50 to 0.89, and the best predictors in different regions are different. This work presents a global map of river isotopes and establishes a benchmark for further research on isotopes in rivers.

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Section: Relationship Between δ 18 O and δ 2 H In River Waterssupporting

confidence: 63%

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Nan

Tian

et al. 2019

Water

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“…The pore water concentrations below 1.5 m were slightly lower than those between 0.5 and 1.5 m. This suggests that pore water Cl concentrations may have increased with time as FFT was placed in BML. A general enrichment of oil sands process water, which constitutes the FFT pore water, has been observed due to water reuse for the bitumen extraction process through the recycle water circuit [ Baer , ; Baer and Barbour , ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical mass transport between fluid fine tailings and the overlying water cover of an oil sands end pit lake

Dompierre

Barbour

North

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

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Fluid fine tailings (FFT) are a principal by-product of the bitumen extraction process at oil sands mines. Base Mine Lake (BML)-the first full-scale demonstration oil sands end pit lake (EPL)-contains approximately 1.9 3 10 8 m 3 of FFT stored under a water cover within a decommissioned mine pit. Chemical mass transfer from the FFT to the water cover can occur via two key processes: (1) advection-dispersion driven by tailings settlement; and (2) FFT disturbance due to fluid movement in the water cover. Dissolved chloride (Cl) was used to evaluate the water cover mass balance and to track mass transport within the underlying FFT based on field sampling and numerical modeling. Results indicated that FFT was the dominant Cl source to the water cover and that the FFT is exhibiting a transient advection-dispersion mass transport regime with intermittent disturbance near the FFT-water interface. The advective pore water flux was estimated by the mass balance to be 0.002 m 3 m 22 d 21 , which represents 0.73 m of FFT settlement per year. However, the FFT pore water Cl concentrations and corresponding mass transport simulations indicated that advection rates and disturbance depths vary between sample locations. The disturbance depth was estimated to vary with location between 0.75 and 0.95 m. This investigation provides valuable insight for assessing the geochemical evolution of the water cover and performance of EPLs as an oil sands reclamation strategy. End pit lakes (EPLs) offer long-term FFT containment with relatively low initial costs [Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), 2012]. These mine closure landscapes contain FFT deposits under a water cover within decommissioned mine pits. In the future, EPLs will be incorporated into the larger mine Key Points: First study of solute release from fluid fine tailings (FFT) stored under water cover in first oil sands end pit lake Mass balance confirmed constituents in FFT pore water largest mass input to water cover Numerical models show advectiondispersion during FFT settlement controls mass transport

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“…In addition, with the development of portable laser spectroscopy, DVE-LS is increasingly used in an in situ, non-destructive manner to track water movement through the subsurface (Gaj et al, 2016;Pratt, Lu, Barbour, & Hendry, 2016;Rothfuss, Vereecken, & Brüggemann, 2013;Volkmann & Weiler, 2014). Due to the cost-effectiveness and portability, DVE-LS has been used increasingly in a variety of applications (Baer, Barbour, & Gibson, 2016;Harrington, Gardner, Smerdon, & Hendry, 2013;Quade et al, 2019). Although previous work has been paramount in advancing our understanding of water movement through the subsurface, two key issues still remain unanswered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration method affects the measured δ²H and δ¹⁸O in soil water by direct H₂O_liquid–H₂O_vapour equilibration with laser spectroscopy

Wang

Cheng

Pratt

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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The direct H 2 O liquid -H 2 O vapour equilibration method utilizing laser spectroscopy (DVE-LS) is a way to measure soil pore water stable isotopes. Various equilibration times and calibration methods have been used in DVE-LS. Yet little is known about their effects on the accuracy of the obtained isotope values. The objective of this study was to evaluate how equilibration time and calibration methods affect the accuracy of DVE-LS. We did both spiking and field soil experiments. For the spiking experiment, we applied DVE-LS to four soils of different textures, each of which was subjected to five water contents and six equilibration times. For the field soil experiment, we applied three calibration methods for DVE-LS to two field soil profiles, and the results were compared with cryogenic vacuum distillation (CVD)-LS. Resultsshowed that DVE-LS demonstrated higher δ 2 H and δ 18 O as equilibration time increased, but 12 to 24 hr could be used as optimal equilibration time. For field soil samples, DVE-LS with liquid waters as standards led to significantly higher δ 2 H and δ 18 O than CVD-LS, with root mean square error (RMSE) of 8.06‰ for δ 2 H and 0.98‰ for δ 18 O. Calibration with soil texture reduced RMSE to 3.53‰ and 0.72‰ for δ 2 H and δ 18 O, respectively. Further, calibration with both soil texture and water content decreased RMSE to 3.10‰ for δ 2 H and 0.73‰ for δ 18 O. Our findings conclude that the calibration method applied may affect the measured soil water isotope values from DVE-LS.

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The stable isotopes of site wide waters at an oil sands mine in northern Alberta, Canada

Cited by 25 publications

References 31 publications

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Chemical mass transport between fluid fine tailings and the overlying water cover of an oil sands end pit lake

Calibration method affects the measured δ²H and δ¹⁸O in soil water by direct H₂O_liquid–H₂O_vapour equilibration with laser spectroscopy

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The stable isotopes of site wide waters at an oil sands mine in northern Alberta, Canada

Cited by 25 publications

References 31 publications

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Stable Isotope Composition of River Waters across the World

Chemical mass transport between fluid fine tailings and the overlying water cover of an oil sands end pit lake

Calibration method affects the measured δ2H and δ18O in soil water by direct H2Oliquid–H2Ovapour equilibration with laser spectroscopy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Calibration method affects the measured δ²H and δ¹⁸O in soil water by direct H₂O_liquid–H₂O_vapour equilibration with laser spectroscopy