The design and installation of a field instrumentation program for the evaluation of soil-atmosphere water fluxes in a vegetated cover over saline/sodic shale overburden
Date
2003
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The mining of oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta, involves the stripping of salinesadie
overburden to gain access to the oil-bearing formation. The overburden is placed in
mined out pits and surface dumps and is re-contoured before being capped with a
mandated 1 m soil cover. The potential for slope instability, subsidence, and salinization
resulting from the character of the saline-sodic material and its interaction with fresh
water makes it imperative that the amount of precipitation percolating below the root zone
be minimised. Syncrude Canada Ltd is conducting a large scale cover trial at the Mildred
Lake mine in order to assess the performance of different reclamation strategies.
Four 1 hectare prototype covers were placed on an area referred to as the SW30-Dump in
order to study the basic mechanisms controlling moisture movement within the cover
systems. Three covers were constructed in 1999 with configurations of 1.00 m, 0.50 m
and 0.35 m thick and consisted of a thin layer of peat overlying varying thickness of
secondary soil. A fourth study site was established on a recently reclaimed watershed
capped with a 1.00 m cover of peat/secondary mix in 1996.
A field instrumentation program was carried out consisting of detailed monitoring of
matric suction, volumetric water content and temperature within the different soil profiles,
as well as measurements of runoff, interflow and site-specific meteorological conditions.
Generally, all instrumentation performed well and was found to correctly measure the
soil-atmosphere fluxes required to assess each cover alternative.
Evaluation of the covers revealed that the 1m layered cover was the only one to maintain
sufficient soil moisture for all monitored growing seasons. A significant portion of the
available soil water was held within the peat layer. The other three covers lacked the
required storage during drier periods and on numerous occasions soil suction values
exceeded the wilting point for vegetation. Interflow measured from the covers was
negligible, while high intensity rainfall events and large snow melt events caused
preferential flow events in all but the 1 m layered cover. Moisture contents in the shale
overburden fluctuated only 1 to 2 percent during the period monitored, indicating nominal
percolation into the shale beyond the cover/overburden interface.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Civil Engineering
Program
Civil Engineering