Book Description

"This report describes a two-dimensional contamminant fate and transport model and its application to the lower Athabasca River. This is one of the major deliverables of a multi-year project funded by the Interdepartmental Panel on Energy R&D (PERD) and Environment Canada to study the aquatic impact of oil sands and heavy oil operations in northeastern Alberta. The Athabasca tar sands contain a substantial part of Canada's oil supply. A number of nitrogen-, and sulphur-PAC's (polycyclic aromatic compounds) as well as their alkyl derivatives have been identified in tar sands plants process streams and emissions. Some of these PAC's are known mutagens and carcinogens. The fate and persistence of these chemicals downstream of tar sands plants on the Athabasca River have been examined using a combination of field and laboratory data collection coupled with computer simulation modelling. The model, ATHMOD2, is expected to be used in future enviromnental impact assessments which are required as a result of industry expansion. It can easily be applied to other toxic substances and rivers to consider continuous and single spill discharges where incomplete mixing required two-dirnensional analysis. It has been designed to operate within the Windows environment and has a user friendly input interface coupled with sophisticated model output visualization features"--Management perspective.