Water Contamination

One of the most prevalent stakeholder concerns related to water use in oil sands operations is the risk of groundwater contamination and its potential impact on human health. We carefully manage the water in our operations to reduce risk of contamination of potable water sources through measures that include:

• Our steam-assisted gravity drainage operations do not draw water from the Athabasca River or any other surface water bodies, instead drawing it from deep underground aquifers that do not contain potable water.
• We dispose of wastewater from our operations through deep-well injection. These wells are deep within the ground and are well below any potable water sources.
• The blowdown pond on-site measures 150 metres by 150 metres, and is used to store water that accumulates during normal plant operations. Residual products from warm lime softening are found in this water. Additionally, it has a saline level that is higher than freshwater but does not contain sand, clay, oil and other residues. The pond is lined to protect groundwater sources.
• All of our permanent storage tanks are equipped with secondary containment to prevent contamination of the soil and groundwater should they accidentally leak.

Aboriginal communities downstream of the oil sands, along with other stakeholders, express concern about how oil sands development is affecting their drinking water and the wildlife that constitutes regional food sources. Some express concerns that pollution is responsible for higher-than-normal cancer rates and other health problems in associated regions. The primary alleged cause of water contamination is seepage from tailings ponds that are created in conjunction with oil sands mining projects.

Our oil sands operations are in-situ and we do not discharge any produced water or other contaminants into surface water. We will continue to work with Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal stakeholders, government, environmental agencies, regulators and industry to ensure that our operations do not negatively impact regional water.

Leveraging Our Innovation

ConocoPhillips Canada uses the Network of Excellence and Global Knowledge Sharing portals to connect with various experts within the company across the globe. Produced water treatment is one area where we have extensive collaboration with heavy oil research as well as development and production assurance technology teams in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We leverage our research and development experts for their input on new technologies for future projects and benefit from their experience with various water treatment technologies.

• Desalination technology. With assistance from our research and development group in Bartlesville, our North Slope Alaska business unit is evaluating use of a seawater desalination technology for an enhanced oil recovery project. We leveraged that study to perform a conceptual analysis of brackish water desalination options to meet the make-up water demands of future Surmont phases.
• Centrifuge technology. Working closely with our research and development group, our technology team in Canada developed and implemented plans for using centrifuge technology to manage our solid waste more effectively for Surmont Phase 2. A centrifuge is used to separate solids from liquids, which allows better recovery and reuse of water. Additionally, this technology is much more efficient and compact than previous water treatment, which requires a blowdown pond on the site. It will enable us to reduce our land footprint because we will no longer need to use a blowdown pond for Phase 2. There is also a heat energy savings as the hot water is recycled back to the produced water treatment system.