T6 Energy: Environmental Legacies and Futures

Sunday, 9 October 2022
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
505

ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL CUMULATIVE EFFECTS IN A REGION WITH A 50-YEAR HISTORY OF OIL AND GAS ACTIVITIES

Paper number: T6-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:25 AM – 8:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

Although it has been widely recognized for some decades that the accumulation of industrial activities in a given area has an impact on the environment that is greater than the sum of the impacts of each individual activity, estimating cumulative effects (CEs) remains a big challenge for a wide variety of reasons, including lack of data, insufficient understanding of the processes involved in the multiple interactions among biophysical components, and poor collaboration among stakeholders. To better consider and assess CEs, Natural Resources Canada has initiated several projects to develop methodologies and collect environmental data. One of these projects is located in west-central Alberta, near Fox Creek, where the hydrocarbon and lumber industries have been very active over the past 50 years. The Fox Creek project was initiated in 2019 and focuses mainly on a 700 km2 study area. It involves fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and numerical modeling. Nine monitoring wells were drilled in 2020 as there were none in the study area.

This project includes the following components (or studies): 1) 2D and 3D hydrogeological models and coupled surface water/groundwater models to study hydrodynamics, 2) estimation of the water budgets and water and soil characteristics in both vegetated and non-vegetated (impacted) areas to better understand the hydrologic cycle in this area, 3) a geomechanical model to study the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing, 4) a study of landscape change over time using satellite imagery, 5) a geochemical study to determine if water resources have been affected by industrial activities, and 6) a plant community study to assess functional recovery in disturbed forest ecosystems. This project focuses on collecting quality data and sharing these data and results among collaborators.

In parallel, a general study to improve the current CEs assessment process in environmental assessments (EAs) is being conducted through interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders including: federal government employees, consultants conducting EAs, and Indigenous communities and environmental advisory committees. The objective is to provide concrete and constructive recommendations that will hopefully lead to effective solutions to achieve satisfactory CEs assessments over the long term.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-381581

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