HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Evaluating Domestic Well Vulnerability to Contamination From Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Sites
This study by researchers at Yale University and the Institute of Technology investigates how vulnerable groundwater wells are to contamination by the growing unconventional oil and gas development industry, which is expanding quickly and, in some cases, negatively impacting groundwater quality and posing a risk to public health by contaminating drinking water sources.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Landscape restoration after oil sands mining: conceptual design and hydrological modelling for fen reconstruction
This study by researchers at the University of Waterloo investigates whether fen peatlands could be reconstructed on post-mine sites. Oil sand extraction can be very harmful to the natural land surface and can have lasting impacts on local ecosystems. This paper focuses on the fen peatlands that cover 65% of the landscape in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Our ability to reinstate these peatlands after mining operations has not truly been tested at large scales, and there are many uncertain factors that can impact reclamation plans for these sensitive wetlands.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Numerical simulations of water flow and contaminants transport near mining wastes disposed in a fractured rock mass
This study uses HydroGeoSphere simulations to model unsaturated water flow and contaminant migration in a mining context, specifically the reclamation of open pits with mine waste products. Fractured rock masses are important to study as fractures present preferential flow paths that can promote contaminant transport.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Geothermal Energy Potential of Active Northern Underground Mines: Designing a System Relying on Mine Water
HydroGeoSphere is a powerful tool for evaluating the potential of geothermal heat pump systems. HGS implicitly simulates thermal energy throughout hydrologic systems (including density driven transport effects), and can model extremely complex geological systems with spatially and temporally varying material properties, with or without the presence of discrete fractures, and with the ability to represent mine infrastructure as discrete features within the model.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT – Mine rock stockpile reclamation trial, Detour Lake Mine
HydroGeoSphere is a powerful tool for evaluating the hydrology of open pit mining operations. HGS modelling at mine sites is typically at the site scale, and presents a perfect use case for short-term real-time hydrologic forecasting. But HGS can also be a great tool at smaller scales. In this study the authors use 1D column HGS models to evaluate the hydrology of a simple unengineered reclamation cover overlying mine waste rock from the Detour Lake Mine in Northern Ontario. 2D cross sectional HGS models were also constructed to ensure the 1D column models were producing accurate results.
HGS RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT - Integrated surface-subsurface water and solute modeling of a reclaimed in-pit oil sands mine: Effects of ground freezing and thawing
The HydroGeoSphere model presented here was able to successfully simulate the water balance and water quality response of the reclaimed landforms, and the results indicate that the impact of winter processes (i.e., pore-water freeze/thaw) on infiltration and surface runoff are significant. Including freeze-thaw resulted in reduced infiltration during spring melt and reduced salt loading during winter. In total, a 20% reduction of chloride mass release (over an 8-year period) was simulated when freeze-thaw processes were included in the simulations. These results provide a strong argument for the inclusion if winter processes and coupled heat dynamics for detailed studies of integrated hydrologic processes in the Athabasca Oil Sands region.