Assess the importance of atmospheric deposition of contaminants as a contributor to ecological impacts of oil sands development and identify sources. • Use snowpack measurements sampled across a gridwork to develop maps of winter-time atmospheric contaminant loadings for the region ~100 km from the major upgrading facilities • Assess long-term trends in winter-time atmospheric deposition • Determine the potential impact of wintertime snowpack mercury loads on tributary river water mercury concentrations (Spring Freshet) using Geographic Information System and hydrological modelling approaches • Compare snowpack loadings to those obtained from precipitation monitoring and compare spatial patterns to PAC air measurements obtained from passive sampling networkAll data are subjects of a publication containing method details, full QA/QC, interpretations and conclusions. Citations:A. Dastoor, A. Ryjkov, G. Kos, J. Zhang, J.L. Kirk, M. Parsons, A. Steffen. 2021. Impact of Athabasca oil sands operations on mercury levels in air and deposition. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 21, 12783-12807. L. Chibwe, D.C.G. Muir, Y. Gopalapillai, D. Shang, F. Yang, J.L. Kirk, C. Manzano, B. Atkinson, X. Wang, C. Teixeira. 2021. Long-term spatial and temporal trends, and source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic compounds in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region. Environmental Pollution 268A, 115351. J. Culp, I. Droppo, P. di Cenzo, A. Alexander-Trusiak, D. Baird, S. Beltaos, G. Bickerton, B. Bonsal, R. Brua, P. Chambers, Y. Dibike, N. Glozier, J.L. Kirk, L. Levesque, M. McMaster, D.C.G. Muir, J. Parrott, D. Peters, K. Pippy, J. Roy. 2021. Ecological effects and causal synthesis of oil sands activity impacts on river ecosystems: water synthesis review. Environmental Reviews 29. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2020-0082. Y. Gopalapillai, J. L. Kirk, M.S. Landis, D.C.G. Muir, C.A. Cooke, C.A., A. Gleason, A. Ho, E. Kelly, D. Schindler, X. Wang, G. Lawson. 2019. Source analysis of pollutant elements in winter air deposition in the Athabasca oil sands region: A Temporal and Spatial Study. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 38, 1656-1668. W. Wasiuta, J.L. Kirk, P.A. Chambers, A.C. Alexander, F.R. Wyatt, R.C. Rooney, C.A. Cooke. 2019. Accumulating mercury and methylmercury burdens in watersheds impacted by oil sands pollution. Environmental Science & Technology 53, 12856-12864. C. Manzano, D. Muir, J. L. Kirk, C. Teixeira, M. Siu, X. Wang, J.P. Charland, D. Schindler, E. Kelly. 2016. Temporal variation in the deposition of polycyclic aromatic compounds in snow in the Athabasca Oil Sands area of Alberta. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 188, 542. andJ.L. Kirk, D. Muir, A. Gleason, X, Wang, R. Frank, I. Lehnherr, F. Wrona. 2014. Atmospheric deposition of mercury and methyl mercury to landscapes and waterbodies of the Athabasca oil sands region. Environmental Science & Technology 48, 73747383.

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 has stratigraphic and lithological picks of the upper bedrock and Quaternary geological units in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area extending north from Cold Lake to the Fort McMurray region. The picks were compiled from the mid-1970s to 2006 to construct maps of the subsurface distribution, structure, topography and thickness of near-surface bedrock and Quaternary stratigraphic units. Alberta Geological Survey staff, as well as staff from industry and other government departments, interpreted the data.

The Cold Lake Oil Sands area, Twp. 56 to 69, Rge. 1 to 11, W 4th Mer., 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. The anthropogenic footprints shapefile contains a compilation of developed and mixed developed footprint classes extracted from the land-use/land-cover classifications data from 2005 to 2013, published by Alberta Geological Survey. They can be used as a baseline for planning, managing and monitoring surface infrastructure needs and impacts.

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.

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. This land classification raster dataset is derived from 2013 Landsat imagery. It 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.

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. This land classification raster dataset is derived from 2006 Landsat imagery. It 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.

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)

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. This land classification raster dataset is derived from 2009 Landsat imagery. It 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.

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 the ecosystem and environment. This is to be achieved through enhanced science-based monitoring for improved characterization of the environment and to collect the information necessary to understand cumulative effects. Landsat multispectral imagery for 2005 and 2006 and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) classification data derived from 2006 were used to produce this dataset. The LULC changes include vegetation loss from anthropogenic disturbances, such as infrastructure related to oil and gas exploration, forestry and agriculture, and vegetation recovery from these disturbances. This digital data release contains the vegetation recovery data from 2005 to 2006, classified into 6 classes: 1 - shrub land, 2 - grassland, 3 - agricultural areas, 4 - coniferous forest, 5 - broadleaf forest and 6 - mixed forest.