Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Alberta’s government has accepted four new recommendations aimed at accelerating oil sands mine water management and tailings pond reclamation.
The recommendations, released Thursday, September 4 by the Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee, call for advancing treatment technologies, creating standards for releasing treated mine water, advancing end pit lakes, and expanding community involvement in monitoring programs.
Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, said the province will begin developing a plan to act on the recommendations.
“Doing nothing while mine water continues accumulating is not a sustainable long-term approach,” Schulz said in a statement. “These recommendations are a path forward to responsibly manage these waters and grow energy production while protecting the environment and communities downstream.”
The steering committee, chaired by Fort McMurray–Wood Buffalo MLA Tany Yao, consulted with industry operators, researchers, Indigenous communities and technology developers before releasing its report. The latest set of recommendations builds on five others released in June.
Industry representatives welcomed the announcement. Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, said the measures provide “the framework and certainty needed by industry to proceed with responsible reclamation of oil sands mines,” adding that federal regulations are still required to move forward.
Chief Jim Boucher, a steering committee member and former chief of Fort McKay First Nation, said the work must continue with Indigenous rights and environmental protection as priorities.
Alberta’s tailings ponds contain more than 1.3 billion cubic metres of water, according to the province. In 2023, the Alberta Energy Regulator reported that 79 per cent of the water used in oil sands mining was recycled.
The government said it will evaluate all nine recommendations from the committee over the coming months before finalizing an implementation plan.
