@article {52796,
	title = {Long-term monitoring and modelling of a reclaimed watershed cover on oil sands tailings},
	volume = {27},
	year = {2013},
	month = {06/2013},
	pages = {21 pages },
	publisher = {International Journal of Mining Reclamation and Environment },
	abstract = {Tailings sand associated with oil sands mining contains saline process-affected pore-water which can have a detrimental impact on the performance of reclamation covers. A reclamation cover site, located at the Syncrude Canada Ltd.{\textquoteright}s South West Sand Storage facility (SWSS), consisted of 45 cm of cover soil over tailings sand. The site was instrumented in 2001 to measure real-time local meteorology, soil temperature, water content and suction over an eight-year period. A one-dimensional numerical model (VADOSE/W) was created to calculate moisture fluxes through the cover/tailings interface over a long-term period (51 years). A pore-water volume method was then used to evaluate the potential risk of salt transport into the overlying cover soil. The long-term modelling demonstrated that the cumulative water flux across the cover/tailings interface is downward, towards the water table, when the water table is deeper than 3 m below the cover/tailings interface; although the water flux across this interface in any single year may be upward. The risk of cover salinisation due to the upward movement of saline tailings pore-water from the underlying water table under these conditions was low (less than one occurrence in over 50 years).},
	keywords = {groundwater, hydrogeology, model, modeling, monitoring, salinity, sodicity, soil moisture, soil water, Syncrude, UofS, watershed},
	author = {Dobchuk, Bonnie S. and Shurniak, Robert E. and Barbou, S. Lee and O{\textquoteright}Kane, Mike A. and Song, Qing}
}
