The acute toxicity of bitumen-influenced groundwaters from the oil sands region to aquatic organisms.

Autor: Bauer AE; Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Hewitt LM; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Roy JW; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Parrott JL; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Bartlett AJ; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Gillis PL; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Norwood WP; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Rudy MD; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Campbell SD; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Rodrigues MR; Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Brown LR; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Vanderveen R; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Deeth LE; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada., Holman EAM; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Salerno J; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Marentette JR; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Lavalle C; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Sullivan C; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Shires K; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Galicia M; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Rubino J; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Brown M; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., O'Neill A; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Bickerton G; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada., Dixon DG; Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada., Frank RA; Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A1, Canada. Electronic address: richard.frank@ec.gc.ca.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2022 Nov 20; Vol. 848, pp. 157676. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Aug 01.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157676
Abstrakt: The extraction of surface mined bitumen from oil sands deposits in northern Alberta, Canada produces large quantities of liquid tailings waste, termed oil sands process-affected water (OSPW), which are stored in large tailings ponds. OSPW-derived chemicals from several tailings ponds migrating past containment structures and through groundwater systems pose a concern for surface water contamination. The present study investigated the toxicity of groundwater from near-field sites adjacent to a tailings pond with OPSW influence and far-field sites with only natural oil sands bitumen influence. The acute toxicity of unfractionated groundwater and isolated organic fractions was assessed using a suite of aquatic organisms (Pimephales promelas, Oryzias latipes, Daphnia magna, Hyalella azteca, Lampsilis spp., Ceriodaphnia dubia, Hexagenia spp., and Vibrio fischeri). Assessment of unfractionated groundwater demonstrated toxicity towards all invertebrates in at least one far-field sample, with both near-field and far-field samples with bitumen influence toxic towards P. promelas, while no toxicity was observed for O. latipes. When assessing the unfractionated groundwater and isolated organic fractions from near-field and far-field groundwater sites, P. promelas and H. azteca were the most sensitive to organic components, while D. magna and L. cardium were most sensitive to the inorganic components. Groundwater containing appreciable amounts of dissolved organics exhibited similar toxicities to sensitive species regardless of an OSPW or natural bitumen source. The lack of a clear distinction in relative acute toxicities between near-field and far-field samples indicates that the water-soluble chemicals associated with bitumen are acutely toxic to several aquatic organisms. This result, combined with the similarities in chemical profiles between bitumen-influenced groundwater originating from OSPW and/or natural sources, suggests that the industrial bitumen extraction processes corresponding to the tailings pond in this study are not contributing unique toxic substances to groundwater, relative to natural bitumen compounds present in groundwater flow systems.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Crown Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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