A Summary of Land Resource and Groundwater Resource Issues Related to Plains Coal Mine Reclamation in Alberta

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Trudell, M.
  • Moran, S. R.
  • Cheel, D.
  • Macyk, T.
  • Thacker, D.

• Development and extraction of coal resources in Alberta disrupts the landscape and alters two other important resources, land and groundwater. In order to support coal resource development that was economically and environmentally responsible, the Reclamation Research Technical Advisory Committee (RRTAC) of the Alberta Land Conservation and Reclamation Council, in consultation with the coal industry, since the late 1970's, guided research into plains coal reclamation. The results of this research program are published in 36+ RRTAC reports and numerous other papers in scientific journals and proceedings of scientific meetings. This report synthesizes and summarizes this body of research in a manner that is designed to provide the user with a unified source of information on reclamation research in the plains of Alberta. The body of the report is separated into two main sections. The first section addresses questions that apply to the land resource, such as soil reconstruction, compaction, subsidence, and salinity. The second section addresses questions that apply to the groundwater resource, such as local and regional groundwater impacts, landscape impacts, and surface and groundwater contamination potential.

• Date created

  1996

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • Soils
  • Coal Mining
  • Groundwater
  • Contamination
  • Salinity
  • Alberta
  • RRTAC OF-10
  • RRTAC
  • Canada, Alberta

• Type of Item

  Report

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3FF3M652

• License

  This material is provided under educational reproduction permissions included in Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development's Copyright and Disclosure Statement, see terms at http://www.environment.alberta.ca/copyright.html. This Statement requires the following identification: \"The source of the materials is Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development http://www.environment.gov.ab.ca/. The use of these materials by the end user is done without any affiliation with or endorsement by the Government of Alberta. Reliance upon the end user's use of these materials is at the risk of the end user.