ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2009
Oil sands development contributes polycyclic aromatic compounds to the Athabasca River and its tributaries.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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45 citing papers in PubMed, 393 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sulfur-Containing Heterocyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Alter Estrogen Metabolism and Cause DNA Damage and Apoptosis in Granulosa Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Contaminates Snowpack across a Broad Region.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Dissolved polycyclic aromatic compounds in Canada's Athabasca River in relation to Oil Sands from 2013 through 2019.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2023Article
- An integrated knowledge synthesis of regional ambient monitoring in Canada's oil sands.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- History, overview, and governance of environmental monitoring in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- A decadal synthesis of atmospheric emissions, ambient air quality, and deposition in the oil sands region.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- A critical review of the ecological status of lakes and rivers from Canada's oil sands region.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- David W. Schindler (1940-2021): Trailblazing scientist and advocate for the environment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Use of pre-industrial baselines to monitor anthropogenic enrichment of metals concentrations in recently deposited sediment of floodplain lakes in the Peace-Athabasca Delta (Alberta, Canada).Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2020Article
- Geospatial analysis of the patterns of chemical exposures among biota in the Canadian Oil Sands Region.PloS one · 2020Article
- Article
- Under the radar: long-term perspectives on ecological changes in lakes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Potential health risks posed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in muscle tissues of fishes from the Athabasca and Slave Rivers, Canada.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2017Article
- Benzene and Naphthalene Degrading Bacterial Communities in an Oil Sands Tailings Pond.Frontiers in microbiology · 2017Article
- Parasite community similarity in Athabasca River trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus) varies with local-scale land use and sediment hydrocarbons, but not distance or linear gradients.Parasitology research · 2016Article
- Temporal variation in the deposition of polycyclic aromatic compounds in snow in the Athabasca Oil Sands area of Alberta.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2016Article
- Article
- Characterizing baseline concentrations, proportions, and processes controlling deposition of river-transported bitumen-associated polycyclic aromatic compounds at a floodplain lake (Slave River Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada).Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2016Article
- Biofilm and Planktonic Bacterial and Fungal Communities Transforming High-Molecular-Weight Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2016Article
- Products of biotransformation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fishes of the Athabasca/Slave river system, Canada.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
For over a decade, the contribution of oil sands mining and processing to the pollution of the Athabasca River has been controversial. We show that the oil sands development is a greater source of contamination than previously realized. In 2008, within 50 km of oil sands upgrading facilities, the loading to the snowpack of airborne particulates was 11,400 T over 4 months and included 391 kg of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC), equivalent to 600 T of bitumen, while 168 kg of dissolved PAC was also deposited. Dissolved PAC concentrations in tributaries to the Athabasca increased from 0.009 microg/L upstream of oil sands development to 0.023 microg/L in winter and to 0.202 microg/L in summer downstream. In the Athabasca, dissolved PAC concentrations were mostly <0.025 microg/L in winter and 0.030 microg/L in summer, except near oil sands upgrading facilities and tailings ponds in winter (0.031-0.083 microg/L) and downstream of new development in summer (0.063-0.135 microg/L). In the Athabasca and its tributaries, development within the past 2 years was related to elevated dissolved PAC concentrations that were likely toxic to fish embryos. In melted snow, dissolved PAC concentrations were up to 4.8 microg/L, thus, spring snowmelt and washout during rain events are important unknowns. These results indicate that major changes are needed to the way that environmental impacts of oil sands development are monitored and managed.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.