Oil Sands Agreement feature class contains provincial extent polygon features representing Oil Sands applications, agreements, leases, and licences, with varying term dates and conditions. These applications and subsequent agreements give the holder the right to explore Oil Sands.

This dataset is produced and published annually by Natural Resources Canada. It contains a variety of statistics on Canada’s mineral production, and provides the geographic locations of significant metallic, nonmetallic and coal mines, oil sands mines, selected metallurgical works and gas fields for the provinces and territories of Canada.Related product:- **[Top 100 Exploration Projects](https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/b64179f3-ea0f-4abb-9cc5-85432fc958a0)**

Waterfowl and mammals harvested and trapped at various locations in the oil sands region and in reference locations are assessed for contaminant burdens and toxicology. Wildlife samples are obtained from local hunters and trappers. Tissue samples are analysed for concentrations of oil sands-related contaminants (heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and naphthenic acids). Dead and moribund birds collected from tailing ponds are also evaluated for levels and effects of contaminants.

Air emissions from oil sands development can come from a number of sources including industrial smokestacks, tailings ponds, transportation, and dust from mining operations. Air quality monitoring under the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for the Oil Sands is designed to determine the contribution of emissions from oil sands activities to local and regional air quality and atmospheric deposition both now and in the future. Deposition data include: - Passive Sampling of PACs deployed for two month periods across a network of 17 sites - Active sampling of PACs at three sites to inform the amount of dry deposition - Particulate metals (24 hour integrated samples following the one in six day National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) cycle)

This study aimed to identify chemical components that could distinguish chemical mixtures in oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) from natural groundwater sources. Oil sands process-affected samples were collected from two different oil sands development tailing ponds, and natural groundwater samples were collected from both far-field (greater than one kilometer (>1km) down- or upstream from an oil sands development site), and near-field (less than 200 meters (<200m) from an oil sands development site) locations.Water samples were assessed by geochemistry, total naphthenic acid analysis, and synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy (SFS) identifying those samples with acid-extractable organics (AEO). Using electrospray ionization high resolution mass spectrometry as well as multidimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry profiling allowed for differentiation of natural from OSPW sources through the measurement of O2 : O4 ion class ratios. AEO profiles from OSPW and groundwater samples adjacent to tailings ponds were similar, suggesting a common source.All data are a part subject of a publication containing method details, full QA/QC, interpretation, and conclusions: Frank, R. A., Roy, J. W., Bickerton, G., Rowland, S. J., Headley, J. V., Scarlett, A. G., West, C. E., Peru, K. M., Parrott, J. L., Conly, F. M., & Hewitt, L. M. (2014). Profiling oil sands mixtures from industrial developments and natural groundwaters for source identification. Environmental science & technology, 48(5), 2660–2670. doi.org/10.1021/es500131kResponse to comment: Frank, R. A., Roy, J. W., Bickerton, G., Rowland, S. J., Headley, J. V., Scarlett, A. G., West, C. E., Peru, K. M., Parrott, J. L., Conly, F. M., & Hewitt, L. M. (2014). Response to Comment on "Profiling oil sands mixtures from industrial developments and natural groundwaters for source identification". Environmental science & technology, 48(18), 11015–11016. doi.org/10.1021/es504008z

Historical Oil Fields are subsurface accumulations or 'pools' of crude oil designated as such for the purposes of the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act. This product requires the use of GIS software. *[GIS]: geographic information system

The health of individual amphibians, amphibian populations, and their wetland habitats are monitored in the oil sands region and at reference locations. Contaminants assessments are done at all sites. Amphibians developing near oil sands activities may be exposed to concentrations of oil sands-related contaminants, through air emissions as well as water contamination. The focus of field investigations is to evaluate the health of wild amphibian populations at varying distances from oil sands operations. Wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) populations are being studied in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories in order to examine the relationship of proximity to oil sands activities and to prevalence of infectious diseases, malformation rates, endocrine and stress responses, genotoxicity, and concentrations of heavy metals, naphthenic acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The Cold Lake oil sands area, Township 56 to 69, Range 1 to 11, west of the 4th Meridian, falls within the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP). As part of Alberta's Land-use Framework, LARP was developed in 2012 to set the stage for robust growth, vibrant communities and a healthy environment within the region. One of its implementation objectives is to balance the economic development of oil sands and impacts on ecosystem and environment. This is to be achieved through enhanced science-based monitoring for improved characterization of the environment and collection of the information necessary to understand cumulative effects. For this digital data release, a land use and land cover classification dataset was derived from 2005 Landsat multispectral imagery for the Cold Lake Oil Sands area. The classification contains 13 classes: 0 - unclassified, 1 - exposed land/cut blocks/harvested areas, 2 - water bodies, 3 - transitional bare surfaces, 5 - mixed developed areas, 6 - developed areas, 7- shoal, 8 - shrub land, 9 - grassland, 10 - agriculture areas, 11 - coniferous forest, 12 - broad leaf forest, 13 - mixed forest, and 14- fire scar. These categories can be used as baseline data for planning, managing and monitoring surface infrastructure needs and impacts.

Air emissions from oil sands development can come from a number of sources including industrial smokestacks, tailings ponds, transportation, and dust from mining operations. Air quality monitoring under the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for the Oil Sands is designed to determine the contribution of emissions from oil sands activities to local and regional air quality and atmospheric deposition both now and in the future. Ambient air quality data include: - Filter Pack (24-hour integrated concentrations of particle-bound SO2-4, NO-3, Cl-, NH+4, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+ and gaseous SO2 and HNO3 collected daily by the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network) - Total Gaseous Mercury (hourly mixing ratios measured by the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network and Prairie and Northern Region) - Atmospheric speciated mercury (Hg) (2-hour average concentrations of gaseous elemental Hg (GEM), reactive gaseous Hg (RGM), and Hg on PM2.5 (total particulate Hg - TPM) - Comprehensive set of measurements collected from an aircraft (various time resolutions) covering an area of 140,000 km2 over the oil sands region - Comprehensive set of measurements collected from the Fort McKay Oski-ôtin monitoring site - Ozone (hourly mixing ratios measured by the Canadian Air and Precipitation Monitoring Network) - Ozone Vertical Profiles (ozone mixing ratios as a function of height) measured by the Canadian Ozone Sonde Network - Aerosol Optical Depth (measure of the degree to which the presence of aerosols in the atmosphere prevents the transmission of light, from the ground to the top of the atmosphere) measured as part of the AErosol RObotic CANadian (AEROCAN) network - Satellite overpass data have a relatively high spatial resolution over the Oil Sands region to produce images and geo-referenced data of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) “vertical column density” (which correlates with surface concentration)

Land Plats illustrate in map view the oil or gas Spacing Areas delimited in a pool, and names the geological formation in which the pool is recognised. Land Plats are the sole official record of where the Director of PandNG Titles Branch recognizes a pool of hydrocarbons to exist for the purpose of administering oil and gas title