Environment and Climate Change Canada

The old-forest landbird monitoring program was initiated in 2014. Old-forest songbirds are a priority for monitoring because they can be vulnerable to habitat disturbance, and their habitats are less common overall and difficult to restore once disturbed. This augmented program employs a...

Local-scale projects focus on gaps in our understanding of complex response patterns at regional scales by targeting specific habitats or development features of interest. Environment and Climate Change Canada is monitoring how and why boreal birds respond to oil sands development features using...

Regional-scale monitoring focuses on understanding how and why boreal songbirds, including several Species at Risk, are affected by human activity across the Peace, Athabasca and Cold Lake oil sands area. Data are collected across multiple habitat types and across a range of disturbance...

Measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) using sunphotometers are being made in the oil sands region (at Fort McKay’s Oski-ôtin site, and Fort McMurray). AOD is a measure of the degree to which atmospheric aerosols absorb or scatter sunlight anywhere from the top of the atmosphere to the...

Monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOC) was initiated by Environment and Climate Change Canada at the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA) Air Monitoring Station (AMS) 1 – Bertha Ganter, in Fort McKay, Alberta in October 2011. The VOC compounds that are currently being measured at...

Ecosystem Sites, Volatile Organic Compounds – Preliminary Data, Oil Sands Region Volatile organic compounds (VOC) data are currently collected by Environment and Climate Change Canada at a Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA) Air Monitoring Station (AMS). As of September 27, 2017, raw,...

Concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Tailings Pond Water in the Oil Sands Region – September 2013 To evaluate evaporation from tailings ponds as a potential source of emissions of pollutants to air, bulk water samples were collected from 8...

This Joint Oil Sands Monitoring Air Emissions Inventory (Inventory) for the oil sands region is part of the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring Program Emissions Inventory Compilation Report (Report). The Inventory is based on a synthesis of available information from several existing inventories and...

Water Quality Monitoring on Tributaries in the Athabasca River Oil Sands Region Ells River (EL1, ELLS RIFF 2, ELLS RIFF5 [2012-2015]) Mackay River (MA1 [2012-2015], MA2 [2013-2015]) Steepbank River (STB RIFF1, STB WSC, STB RIFF7, STB RIFF10 [2012-2015]) Firebag River (FI1, FI WSC [2012-2015])...