This decommissioned ERA site remains active temporarily to support our final migration steps to https://ualberta.scholaris.ca, ERA's new home. All new collections and items, including Spring 2025 theses, are at that site. For assistance, please contact erahelp@ualberta.ca.
RRTAC Reports
The Reclamation Research Technical Advisory Committee (RRTAC) was established in 1978 to manage the Alberta Government’s reclamation research program, funded through the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund’s Land Reclamation Program. The research program focused initially on plains coal mining, then expanded to include mountain and foothills coal mining, oil sands mining and oil and gas. The program ran from 1978 to 1994 and produced numerous research reports.
OSRIN has digitized 37 of the RRTAC reports including:
· all of the reports prepared under RRTAC’s Oil Sands Reclamation Research Program;
· a number of reports of general interest (e.g., salinity, topsoil storage, plant suitability); and
· reports from the other research program areas that address oil sands issues (Plains Coal – salinity, groundwater, soil characterization; Mountains and Foothills – wildlife habitat, tree growth, erosion).
TAKE NOTE: These reports are provided to give context and historical information. As they are old they may contain references to out-of-date legislation and policies. Readers should be cautious when using these materials and always refer to current legislation and policies.
Items in this Collection
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Catalogue of Technologies for Reducing the Environmental Impact of Fine Tailings from Oil Sands Processing
Download1993
Rose, D. E., Taplin, D., Fuhr, B. J.
A catalogue containing 22 technologies for reducing the environmental impact of fine tailings derived from oil sand processing has been assembled. The simple format which was developed as part of this study consisted of a spreadsheet outline of the technologies and a process summary for each...
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1990
Vegetation cover data, collected annually in reclaimed areas of the Syncrude and Suncor mine sites, have been analyzed to determine the effect of reclamation methods and site factors on species composition and rate of natural plant invasion. Sites monitored include reclaimed tailings sand and...
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1993
Koverny, L., Bork, P., Johnson, R. L., James, W. H., Allen, E. A. D.
The dewatering of oil sands sludge is a major technological, economical, and environmental challenge to the oil sands industry of northeastern Alberta. Sludge is a mixture of small mineral particles (less than 44 µm in diameter), residual bitumen from the extraction process, and water. Sludge...
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1994
This report outlines a conceptual and analytical framework for quantifying risks to terrestrial wildlife that might be exposed to solid-phase materials potentially associated with oil sands reclamation. The initial phase of the assessment involved screening the soil-tailings against published...
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1983
This report contains the result of a study jointly financed by Alberta Environment, Petro Canada, Suncor Inc., Alsands Project Group, Syncrude Canada Ltd. and the Oil Sands Environmental Study Group. The objective of the study was the definition of physical and chemical soil properties required...
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The Effect of Freezing and Thawing on the Dewatering of Oil Sands Sludge. IN: Proceedings of the Conference Reclamation, A Global Perspective
Download1989
Bork, P., Layte, P., Johnson, R. L.
Oil sands processing operations in northeastern Alberta generate 25 x 106 m3 of water-fines mixtures (sludge) per year. The fines settle in several weeks but will not consolidate to more than 35% solids, even over centuries. Freezing and thawing the oil sands sludge led to rapid dewatering. ...