Friday, September 12, 2025
The Government of Alberta has received four new recommendations to help speed up oil sands mine water management and tailings pond reclamation. After extensive study and analysis, the Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee has released four new recommendations for Alberta and Canada. They are calling for new treatment technologies and increased community involvement in monitoring programs, as well as the establishment of standards for releasing treated oil sands mine water, and advancing end pit lakes.
Alberta’s government accepts all four recommendations and will immediately begin exploring them further to create an accelerated plan for reclaiming the water and eventually returning the land for use by future generations.
“Doing nothing while mine water continues accumulating is not a sustainable long-term approach,” said Rebecca Schulz, Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Protected Areas. “These recommendations are a path forward to responsibly manage these waters and grow energy production while protecting the environment and communities downstream. I want to thank the committee for their great work, and we will start developing a plan to put these recommendations into action.”
The Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee met with industry operators, technology providers, Indigenous community members and scientists to review evidence and explore viable options to improve mine water management and tailings pond reclamation in Alberta’s oil sands region.
“We welcome these measures by the Alberta government, which provide the framework and certainty needed by industry to proceed with responsible reclamation of oil sands mines,” said Pierre Gratton, president and CEO, Mining Association of Canada. “Further, Alberta is proposing science-based parameters to ensure the safe return of treated water used in oil sands mining, just as other provincial governments do for their respective mining sectors. We are hopeful that this will accelerate the development of federal regulations – which we requested almost 15 years ago – to be similarly advanced to allow the oil sands mining sectors to proceed with significant investments in reclamation and water treatment.”
Building off five initial recommendations released in June, the committee has made these four additional recommendations:
- Recommendation 6 recommends government to work with the oil sands industry, technology providers and researchers to develop and conduct pilots on oil sands mine water treatment technologies.
- Recommendation 7 recommends government to expedite establishing release standards for treated oil sands mine water, building on existing processes used for other industries.
- Recommendation 8 recommends government to establish criteria for end pit lakes at the individual and landscape levels, building on ongoing research and development.
- Recommendation 9 recommends more inclusive oil sands mine water monitoring to support implementing these recommendations, while enhancing the credibility, transparency and timeliness of result reporting.
“The recommendations are another critical step in the right direction. We cannot ignore this challenge, we need to keep working together to find practical and effective solutions that protect Indigenous rights, people and the environment,” said Chief Jim Boucher, steering committee member, president, Saa Dene Group of Companies, and former chief of Fort McKay First Nation.
Over the coming months, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas will work with the Alberta Energy Regulator and others to evaluate and explore all the committee’s recommendations. Once the evaluation is complete, government will implement a safe and reasonable plan that is supported by science and protects communities in the region and downstream.
Read all nine recommendations here: Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee recommendations
Featured photo credit: Getty Images
