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Understanding and Mitigating Impacts of Unconventional Oil Production and Transport on Canada’s Aquatic Resources.

Session Organizer: Diane Orihel, Jules Blais
Date/Time: January 6, 8:30 – 10:30 
Location: Salon F

Summary Information

Canada’s oil sands constitute the third largest known oil reserve in the world: covering an area of 142,200 km², these deposits contain an estimated 168 billion barrels of crude oil. The rapid expansion of oil sands development in northern Alberta over the last few decades has been one of the most publicized environmental issues in Canada. Government policies and regulations have struggled to keep pace with development, creating serious challenges in managing the environmental, social and economic impacts of this industry. In particular, serious concerns have grown over the potential adverse impacts of oil sands development on water quality and quantity. Furthermore, the transport of oil sands products, particularly diluted bitumen, by train or pipeline poses risks to aquatic ecosystems due to potential spills. In this special session, we invite presentations that will advance our understanding of the impacts of unconventional oil production and transport on freshwater ecosystems, as well as presentations that will discuss mitigation strategies to reduce these impacts.

Presentations

8:30 - 8:50: *Cancelled* Naphthenic acids disrupt development and reproduction in frogs. 
Vance Trudeau¹, Juan Gutierrez-Villagomez¹, Wo Su Zhang¹, Jules Blais¹, Sarah Hughes², Kerry Peru³, John Headley³, and Bruce Pauli³  

8:50 - 9:10: Assessing the effects of TiO2-treated oil sands wastewater exposure on developing fathead minnows.
Barry Madison⁴, Lauren Halliwell⁴, Jessie Reynolds⁴, Tim Leshuk⁵, Frank Gu⁵, Kerry Peru³, John Headley³, and Diane Orihel⁴

9:10 - 9:30: The BOREAL Project: Overview of an experimental oil spill to limnocorrals at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area.
Jules Blais¹, Diane Orihel⁴, Jose Luis Rodríguez-Gil¹, Bruce Hollebone³, Vince Palace⁶, and Mark Hanson⁷  

9:30 - 9:50: Diluted bitumen spills and the boreal freshwater ecosystem: a microcosm study.
Jeffrey Cederwall⁴, Jules Blais¹, Charles Greer⁸, Mark Hanson⁷, Bruce Hollebone³, Christine Maynard⁸, Alice Ortmann⁹, Vince Palace⁶, Jose Luis Rodriguez Gil¹, Rebecca Rooney⁵, Sawyer Stoyanovich¹, and Diane Orihel⁴ 

9:50 - 10:10: Behavioural responses to diluted bitumen in wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpoles.
Caleb Hasler¹⁰, Daniel Denton¹⁰, Samuel Patterson⁴, Jules Blais¹, Mark Hanson⁷, Jose Luis Rodriguez Gill¹, Bruce Hollebone³, Vince Palace⁶, and Diane Orihel⁴ 

10:10 - 10:30: The Freshwater Oil spill Remediation Study (FOReSt): Monitored natural attenuation of contained crude oil spills in a boreal lake at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area.
Lee Hrenchuk⁶, Lisa Peters⁷, Patrique Bulloch⁷, Jamie Dearnley⁷, Lauren Timlick⁷, Heather Dettman¹¹, Charles Greer¹², Tanya Shanoff¹³, Grant Wiseman¹³, Elliot Taylor¹⁴, Mark Hanson⁷, Gregg Tomy⁷, and Vince Palace⁶ 

¹ University of Ottawa
² Shell Health – Americas
³ Environment and Climate Change Canada
⁴ Queen’s University
⁵ University of Waterloo
⁶ IISD Experimental Lakes Area
⁷ University of Manitoba
⁸ National Research Council Canada
⁹ Fisheries and Oceans Canada
¹⁰ University of Winnipeg
¹¹ Natural Resources Canada
¹² McGill University
¹³ Stantec Consultants Ltd
¹⁴ Polaris Applied Sciences