Isolation and Characterization of Oil Sands Process-Affected Water (OSPW) Fractions and Assessment of Their Toxicity Using Mammalian Cells

Untreated oil sands process-affected waters (OSPW) are stored long-term in tailings ponds and to date, no standardized water treatment method exists that would help permit rapid and large-scale release of these contaminated waters into the environment. Efforts to remediate and/or detoxify OSPW must be carefully monitored for their efficacy and feasibility. This project focused on developing methods to test for toxicity in aging and treated OSPW in order to support remediation pathways that may enable eventual safe release of treated water to the environment.

Project at a Glance

Funding Recipient: University of Alberta, Dr. James Stafford
Website: Visit their website
Funding Awarded: $336,000
Project Duration: Oct 1, 2018 – Jul 31, 2022
Sector: Environment
Program: Water Innovation Program

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Project Description

The main objectives of this project were to:

  1. To develop methods to isolate the OSPW-inorganic fraction (IF) and OSPW-organic fraction (OF);
  2. To investigate the immunotoxicological effects of acute OSPW-IF and OSPW-OF exposures alone or in combination in vitro using a mammalian macrophage immune cell line; and
  3. To establish bioactive profiles for OSPW before and after treatment using solar-activated zinc oxide photocatalytic oxidation or electro-oxidation, and to perform water quality assessments on each sample (i.e., NA quantification and profiling).