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 As they are old they may contain references to out-of-date legislation and policies.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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Current Reclamation Approach at the Syncrude Oil Sands Plant. IN: Proceedings of the Conference Reclamation, A Global Perspective
Download1989
Syncrude Canada Ltd. is an oil sands surface mining and process venture located at the Athabasca Oil Sands deposit in northeastern Alberta, Canada. An estimated 300 billion barrels of oil are considered recoverable from this deposit. The Alberta Government maintains that mined land be reclaimed...
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Ectomycorrhizae of Jack Pine and Green Alder: Assessment for the Need for Innoculation, Development of Innoculation Techniques, and Outplanting Trials on Oil Sands Tailings
Download1988
The overall objectives of these studies were to characterize the mycorrhizal status of jack pine and green alder which are prime candidates as reclamation species for oil sand tailings and to determine the potential benefits of mycorrhizae on plant performance. This entailed determining the...
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1989
In 1980 RRTAC published RRTAC Report No. 80-5: Manual of Plant Species Suitability for Reclamation in Alberta to provide users with information on a variety of plant species suitable for use in reclamation programs in Alberta. The manual was well received and went out of print in late 1988. An...
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1993
Tedder, W. S., Turchenek, L. W., Krzanowski, R.
Several hundred hectares of peatlands in Alberta have been harvested for horticultural peat moss since the 1960s and have been left unreclaimed. The need to reclaim them to a suitable land use is now recognized. Various kinds of information are required in order to assess land use alternatives...
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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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1992
Treatment plots were established on the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Oil sands mine site to test the effect of a variety of mixtures of peat, mineral overburden, and tailings sand on establishment of an initial vegetation cover and productivity of planted trees and shrubs. Treatments consisted of nine...