The Southwest Sand Storage Facility (SWSS) is a 25 km 2 oil sands tailings storage structure, located at Syncrude Canada Ltd., within Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands Region. Reclamation challenges arise from the interactions of soil chemical, physical and hydrologic parameters that may be limiting revegetation success. This study examined these interactions so that appropriate reclamation and revegetation measures can be made and final reclamation success can be achieved.

The plant communities on Cells 32 and 46 were primarily composed of early successional, ruderal species. Salinity and soil moisture were not affecting revegetation success on Cell 32 but sodicity and soil nutrient deficiencies were. On Cell 46, salinity, although higher than on Cell 32, was not currently affecting revegetation success; but sodicity, soil nutrient deficiencies and low reclamation soil depths were.