The acute toxicity of bitumen-influenced groundwaters from the oil sands region to aquatic organisms

This study examined the toxicity effects of groundwater collected from areas with influence from natural bitumen sources (far-field), as well as samples collected from areas with influence from industrial bitumen sources (near-field). A novel method for extraction and fractionation of dissolved organics was applied to the bitumen-influenced samples. Both whole water samples, and isolated organic fraction samples were used in the toxicity testing of eight different aquatic organisms. Groundwater samples were collected in 2012 and 2013 from six sites along the Athabasca River and the Ells River, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

All data are a part subject of a publication containing method details, full QA/QC, interpretation and conclusions: Bauer, A.E., Hewitt, L.M., Roy, J.W., Parrott, J.L., Bartlett, A.J., Gillis, P.L., Norwood, W. P., Rudy, M.D., Campbell, S.D., Rodrigues, M.R., Brown, L.R., Vanderveen, R., Deeth, L.E., Holman, E.A.M., Salerno, J., Marentette, J.R., Lavalle, C., Sullivan, C., Shires, K., Galicia, M., Rubino, J., Brown, M., O’Neill, A., Bickerton, G., Dixon, D.G., Frank, R.A., 2022. The acute toxicity of bitumen-influenced groundwaters from the oil sands region to aquatic organisms. Sci. Total Environ. 848, 157676 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157676