REPORT Alberta Environment and Parks Upper Athabasca Effluent Characterization May 2019 CONFIDENTIALITY AND © COPYRIGHT This document is for the sole use of the addressee and Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. The document contains proprietary and confidential information that shall not be reproduced in any manner or disclosed to or discussed with any other parties without the express written permission of Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. Information in this document is to be considered the intellectual property of Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. in accordance with Canadian copyright law. This report was prepared by Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. for the account of Alberta Environment and Parks. The material in it reflects Associated Environmental Consultants Inc.’s best judgement, in the light of the information available to it, at the time of preparation. Any use which a third party makes of this report, or any reliance on or decisions to be made based on it, are the responsibility of such third parties. Associated Environmental Consultants Inc. accepts no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any third party as a result of decisions made or actions based on this report. REPORT Executive Summary 1 INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) is collecting information required to develop a Surface Water Quality Management Framework (SWQMF) in the Upper Athabasca Region that will allow the management of cumulative effects on surface water quality. AEP retained Associated Environmental to conduct an initial study to characterize effluents and inform effluent monitoring programs in the Upper Athabasca Region based on existing information. The principal goals of this study were to: • identify variables of concern (VOCs) for the Upper Athabasca River, • develop recommendations for future effluent monitoring programs, and • develop a prototype effluent quality database that can provide readily available information on effluent quality. Effluent is discharged to the Upper Athabasca River from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, coal mines, and pulp mills. For this report, effluent data were available from two coal mines, two municipal dischargers, and six pulp and paper mills. Receiving waters data were available for the coal mines and pulp and paper mills. The data were compiled, analyzed and used in the identification of VOCs. A literature review was completed to provide additional information on VOCs for the three sectors in the Upper Athabasca Region. 2 VARIABLES OF CONCERN Out of about 250 variables with effluent data, 58 potential VOCs were identified based on meeting at least one of the following three criteria: • exceeded a guideline at least once in available effluent data, • identified as a concern or potential concern in the literature review, or • presented potential to impact surface water quality, indicated by median effluent concentrations exceeding upstream river concentrations by a factor of > 10. A prioritization matrix was developed based on these criteria and then used to identify 24 VOCs for the Upper Athabasca Region. The leading VOCs were total phosphorus, total nitrogen, total suspended solids, and biochemical oxygen demand, due to their prominence in all effluent types and their observed impact on the river. Dissolved oxygen is an important VOC as an indicator of impacts of oxygen-consuming substances to the river. Selenium is of large importance due to coal mining but also pulp and paper. Other metals (e.g., zinc, cadmium, and cobalt) feature on the list, as well as conductivity, fecal coliforms, sulphate and sulphide, phenolic compounds, and chloride. i Alberta Environment and Parks 3 EFFLUENT MONITORING PROGRAM REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS The study included a review of effluent monitoring programs that are currently in place for municipal, coal mining, and pulp and paper dischargers in the Upper Athabasca Region. We summarized current monitoring requirements, identified gaps, and provided recommendations for idealized monitoring programs for each sector. Existing monitoring programs include at least monthly monitoring for key parameters TSS (all sectors) and cBOD (pulp and paper and municipal). Some sector-specific parameters are monitored at least monthly as well, such as ammonia and TP for some municipalities, nitrate for coal mines, and colour and nutrients in pulp and paper mill effluent. Many additional parameters are monitored less frequently in coal mine and pulp and paper effluents. Toxicity testing is conducted at coal mines and pulp and paper effluent. The following recommendations were provided for additions and changes to sector-specific monitoring programs: • Always monitor ammonia, temperature, and pH together for municipalities to allow assessing un- ionized ammonia, • Include TP in municipal effluent monitoring programs, • Add selenium, variables associated with calcite deposition potential (e.g., calcium, carbonate, magnesium, hardness), and sublethal toxicity testing to coal mining monitoring, and • Add sulphide and hardness to pulp and paper monitoring, consistently monitor major ions, and increase heavy metal monitoring frequency from annually to at least quarterly or monthly. The following recommendations were provided for additions and changes to monitoring programs for all sectors: • Complete a one-time effluent characterization of an extended dataset to confirm list of VOCs, • Complete one-time receiving water impact study to identify site-specific constraints on effluent quality, • Include effluent volumes and loadings in monitoring and reporting to better support cumulative effects management efforts, and • Homogenize and improve reporting requirements, which includes the submission of spreadsheet- format duplicates of data with annual and monthly reporting in pdf format, including relevant metadata. This study was based on a limited amount of effluent quality and river data, in particular for coal mines and municipalities. More effluent and river data should be collected for these sectors to increase our confidence in the results of identification and prioritization of VOCs. Coal mine and municipal effluent data are available in pdf format from annual reports and can be extracted. Obtaining original data from the facilities themselves may be an alternative approach. Additional river data from upstream locations of municipal discharges may be obtained from the AEP ambient water quality database. This would help improve the river impact analysis and thereby increase confidence in the VOC prioritization. ii p:\20188254\00_upper_athabasca_e\environmental_sciences\04.00_environmental_assessments\final report\rep_aep_upperathabasca_final-20190509_v2.docx Table of Contents Table of Contents SECTION PAGE NO. Executive Summary i Table of Contents iii List of Tables v List of Figures vi List of Abbreviations vii 1 Introduction 1-1 2 Study Area 2-1 3 Data Analysis 3-1 3.1 Dataset Overview 3-1 3.2 Data Processing 3-5 3.3 Summary Statistics 3-6 3.4 Censored Data 3-7 3.5 Seasonality 3-8 4 Variables of Concern 4-1 4.1 Approach to Identifying Variables of Concern 4-1 4.2 Guideline Exceedances 4-1 4.3 Literature Review of Variables of Concern in Effluents 4-2 4.4 River Impact Analysis 4-5 4.5 Prioritization of Variables of Concern 4-7 4.6 Recommended Variables of Concern 4-7 5 Monitoring Program Evaluation and Recommendation 5-1 5.1 Current Effluent Monitoring Program 5-1 5.2 Idealized Monitoring Program 5-5 5.3 Database and Template for Effluent Reporting 5-11 6 Data Gaps and Recommendations 6-12 7 Summary and Conclusions 7-13 7.1 Data 7-13 7.2 VOCs 7-13 7.3 Monitoring Programs 7-13 7.4 Recommendations 7-14 iii Alberta Environment and Parks Closure References Appendix A - List of Analyzed Datasets Appendix B - Summary Statistics and Seasonality Appendix C - Monthly Boxplots Appendix D - Summary of Literature Review Appendix E - Results of River Impact Analysis Appendix F - Ranking of Potential Variables of Concern Appendix G - Wastewater Monitoring Requirements for Coal Mines in the Upper Athabasca Region iv p:\20188254\00_upper_athabasca_e\environmental_sciences\04.00_environmental_assessments\final report\rep_aep_upperathabasca_final-20190509_v2.docx List of Tables List of Tables PAGE NO. Table 3-1 Municipal, coal and pulp & paper dischargers in the Upper Athabasca Region included in effluent quality analysis. 3-3 Table 3-2 Range of sample size per sector and variable class 3-6 Table 3-3 Variables with reporting limits above guidelines 3-7 Table 3-4 Seasonal patterns recorded in Upper Athabasca municipal and industrial effluents 3-10 Table 4-1 Variables exceeding surface water quality guidelines in discharges in the Upper Athabasca Region 4-2 Table 4-2 Variables in industrial discharge that are more than ten times ambient river background 4-6 Table 4-3 Scoring criteria for prioritizing Variables of Concern 4-7 Table 4-4 Preliminary list of Variables of Concern 4-8 Table 5-1 Current municipal wastewater effluent monitoring requirements 5-1 Table 5-2 Current wastewater effluent monitoring requirements for all coal mines in Upper Athabasca Region 5-3 Table 5-3 Current provincial pulp and paper mill wastewater effluent monitoring requirements 5-4 Table 5-4 Idealized effluent monitoring program for municipalities 5-6 Table 5-5 Idealized effluent monitoring program for coal mines 5-7 Table 5-6 Idealized effluent monitoring program for pulp and paper mills 5-8 Table 6-1 Data Gaps and Study Limitations and Recommendations