The Canadian oil sand mining industry takes responsibility for restoring mining areas to an equivalent level that existed before mining occurred. During this process, the surface-vegetation-atmosphere continuum is dramatically altered, creating few similarities to the boreal forest that existed prior to mining. Using the eddy covariance method, a study of the integrated salt and water balance of a saline-sodic overburden pile at Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s Mildred Lake mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta was undertaken in order to measure the surface energy balance for three summers (2003 - 2005) with different climatic and phenological conditions. The objective of this study was to document how evapotranspiration and energy partitioning varied inter-annually during the growing season atop the restoration cover and to relate the portioning of energy at the surface to environmental and physiological variables. The paper described the site and measurement specifics and also presented the results and discussion. Results were organized under the following topics: climate; soil moisture and suction; leaf area index and vegetation; surface energy balance; evapotranspiration; and controls on evapotranspiration. It was concluded that results from this study have important implications for recovery strategies, as the availability water for plant growth, the movement and migration of salts and percolating water for deep drainage all depend on accurate quantification of evapotranspiration. 9 refs., 1 tab