Developing Triggers for Environmental Effects Monitoring Programs for Trout-Perch in the Lower Athabasca River (Canada).

Baseline variations in trout-perch energy use (growth, gonad size) and energy storage (condition, liver size) were characterized between 2009 and 2015 in 8 reaches of the Athabasca River (AB, Canada), including 2 reaches upstream of the city of Fort McMurray (AB, Canada) and 6 reaches downstream of Fort McMurray among existing oil sands operations. Generalized linear models, used to account for background variation, indicated that fork length, gonad size, and liver size decreased, whereas body weight increased, in relation to river discharge, for both male and female trout-perch. Air temperature was positively correlated with liver size and negatively correlated with gonad size and body weight for females, but only positively correlated with gonad weight for males.

Variation in toxicity and ecological risks associated with some oil sands groundwaters.

The surface mining of oil sands deposits requires the removal of groundwater to stabilize the deposit (depressurization) and make it safe for mining. The chemistry and toxicity of deep groundwaters (from 45 to 144 m below an active mining operation) were characterized to determine if the release of groundwaters would pose a risk to a receiving aquatic environment. Concentrations of conventional chemicals such as nutrients and metals were generally below CCME chronic guidelines.

An Adaptive Environmental Effects Monitoring Framework for Assessing the Influences of Liquid Effluents on Benthos, Water, and Sediments in Aquatic Receiving Environments.

Environmental effects monitoring (EEM) has been traditionally used to evaluate the effects of existing facilities discharging liquid effluents into natural receiving waters in Canada. EEM also has the potential to provide feedback to an ongoing project in an adaptive management context and can inform the design of future projects. EEM, consequently, can and should also be used to test the predictions of effects related to new projects.

Developing and applying control charts to detect changes in water chemistry parameters measured in the Athabasca River near the oil sands: A tool for surveillance monitoring.

Control charting is a simple technique to identify change and is well suited for use in water quality programs. Control charts accounting for covariation associated with discharge and in some cases time were used to explore example and representative variables routinely measured in the Athabasca River near the oil sands area for indications of change. The explored variables include 5 major ions (chloride, sodium, sulfate, calcium, magnesium), 5 total metals (aluminum, iron, thallium, molybdenum, vanadium), and total suspended solids at two sites straddling the developments north of Fort McMurray.

Using ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry and toxicity identification techniques to characterize the toxicity of oil sands process-affected water: The case for classical naphthenic acids.

Previous assessments of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) toxicity were hampered by lack of high-resolution analytical analysis, use of nonstandard toxicity methods, and variability between OSPW samples. We integrated ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry with a toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) approach to quantitatively identify the primary cause of acute toxicity of OSPW to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). The initial characterization of OSPW toxicity indicated that toxicity was associated with nonpolar organic compounds, and toxicant(s) were further isolated within a range of discrete methanol fractions that were then subjected to Orbitrap mass spectrometry to evaluate the contribution of naphthenic acid fraction compounds to toxicity.

Testing against "normal" with environmental data.

Normal ranges are some fraction of a reference distribution deemed to represent an expected condition, typically 95%. They are frequently used as the basis for generic criteria for monitoring programs designed to test whether a sample is outside of "normal," as in reference-condition approach studies. Normal ranges are also the basis for criteria for more classic environmental effects monitoring programs designed to detect differences in mean responses between reference and exposure areas.

A comparison of the sensitivity of stream benthic community indices to effects associated with mines, pulp and paper mills, and urbanization.

This study examined the relative sensitivities of seven commonly used indices of stream benthic community composition and three multivariate indices to effects associated with mines, pulp and paper mills, and urbanization. The indices included total abundance, number of taxa, diversity (H'), evenness, Hilsenhoff's biotic index (HBI), the BioMAP water quality index (WQI), the percent model affinity (PMA), and the first three ordination axes from a correspondence analysis. The second objective of the study was to determine the degree of redundancy among these indices.