| Title: | Fugitive Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds from a Tailings Pond in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta |
| Author(s): | Moussa SG; Staebler RM; You Y; Leithead A; Yousif MA; Brickell P; Beck J; Jiang Z; Liggio J; Li SM; Wren SN; Brook JR; Darlington A; Cober SG; |
| Address: | "Air Quality Processes Research Section, Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T4, Canada. Suncor Energy Inc., Calgary, Alberta T2P 3Y7, Canada. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 223 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R4, Canada" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1520-5851 (Electronic) 0013-936X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Tailings ponds in the oil sands (OS) region in Alberta, Canada, have been associated with fugitive emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other pollutants to the atmosphere. However, the contribution of tailings ponds to the total fugitive emissions of VOCs from OS operations remains uncertain. To address this knowledge gap, a field study was conducted in the summer of 2017 at Suncor's Pond 2/3 to estimate emissions of a suite of pollutants including 68 VOCs using a combination of micrometeorological methods and measurements from a flux tower. The results indicate that in 2017, Pond 2/3 was an emission source of 3322 +/- 727 tons of VOCs including alkanes, aromatics, and oxygenated and sulfur-containing organics. While the total VOC emissions were approximately a factor of 2 higher than those reported by Suncor, the individual VOC species emissions varied by up to a factor of 12. A chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor model was used to estimate the contribution of the tailings pond to VOC pollution events in a nearby First Nations and Metis community in Fort McKay. CMB results indicate that Suncor Pond 2/3 contributed up to 57% to the total mass of VOCs measured at Fort McKay, reinforcing the importance of accurate VOC emission estimation methods for tailings ponds" |
| Keywords: | *Air Pollutants/analysis Alberta Environmental Monitoring Oil and Gas Fields Ponds *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis air pollution air quality chemical mass balance.emission rates indigenous communities oil and gas development tailings ponds volatile; |
| Notes: | "MedlineMoussa, Samar G Staebler, Ralf M You, Yuan Leithead, Amy Yousif, Meguel A Brickell, Peter Beck, James Jiang, Zhimei Liggio, John Li, Shao-Meng Wren, Sumi N Brook, Jeffrey R Darlington, Andrea Cober, Stewart G eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2021/09/16 Environ Sci Technol. 2021 Oct 5; 55(19):12831-12840. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c02325. Epub 2021 Sep 15" |
