Evolution of the Hydraulic Conductivity of Reclamation Covers over Sodic/Saline Mining Overburden
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 10
Abstract
The evolution of the field saturated hydraulic conductivity of four covers located on a reclaimed saline-sodic shale overburden from oil sands mining is presented. Three covers consisted of a surface layer of peat/glacial topsoil over a mineral, soil. and one cover was a single layer of mixed peat and mineral soil. Measurements of the field saturated hydraulic conductivity of the cover and shale materials were made with a Guelph permeameter between 2000 and 2004. The hydraulic conductivity of the cover materials in the multilayered covers increased by one to two orders of magnitude over the first few monitoring seasons. The hydraulic conductivity of the single-layer cover system, which was placed three years before the multilayered covers, marginally increased from 2000 to 2002 and then remained relatively unchanged. The hydraulic conductivity of the shale underlying all four covers increased approximately one order of magnitude. Soil temperature measurements indicated that one freeze/thaw cycle occurred each year within all cover soils and the surficial overburden. This suggests that freeze/thaw effects were the cause of the observed increases in hydraulic conductivity, as previously observed by other researchers working on compacted clays.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of this work by Syncrude Canada Ltd. and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)NSERC. A catalyst is required to advance a project to completion; for this project, it was Dr. Lee Barbour and Clara Qualizza.
References
Albrecht, B. A., and Benson, C. H. (2001). “Effect of desiccation on compacted natural clays.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 127(1), 67–75.
ASTM. (1990). “Standard test method for particle size analysis of soils.” D422-63; reapproved 1990, 1996 Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 4.08, Philadelphia, 10–16.
Barbour, L., et al. (2007). “Soil capping research in the Athabasca oil sands region, Phase 2: Chemistry.” Syncrude Canada, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 147.
Barbour, S. L., et al. (2004). “Tracking the evolution of reclaimed landscapes through the use of instrumented watersheds—A brief history of the Syncrude Southwest 30 overburden reclamation research program.” Proc., Int. Instrumented Watershed Symp., Oil Sands Environmental Research Network (OSERN), Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Benson, C. H., Abichou, T. H., Olson, M. A., and Bosscher, P. J. (1995a). “Winter effects on the hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 121(1), 69–79.
Benson, C. H., Chamberlain, E. J., Erickson, A. E., and Wang, X. (1995b). “Assessing frost damage in compacted clay liners.” Geotech. Test. J., 18(3), 324–333.
Benson, C. H., Sawangsuriya, A., Trzebiatowski, B., and Albright, W. H. (2007). “Postconstruction changes in the hydraulic properties of water balance cover soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 133(4), 349–359.
Boese, C. D. (2003). “The design and installation of a field instrumentation program for the evaluation of soil-atmosphere water fluxes in a vegetated cover over saline/sodic shale pverburden.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Geological Engineering, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Boynton, S. S., and Daniels, D. E. (1985). “Hydraulic conductivity tests on compacted clays.” J. Geotech. Eng., 111(4), 465–478.
Chapuis, R. P. (2002). “The 2000 R.M. Hardy lecture: Full-scale hydraulic performance of soil-bentonite and compacted clay liners.” Can. Geotech. J., 39(2), 417–439.
Chapuis, R. P., Mbonimpa, M., Dagenais, A.-M., and Aubertin, M. (2006). “A linear graphical method to predict the effect of compaction on the hydraulic conductivity of clay liners and covers.” Bull. Eng. Geol. Environ., 65(1), 93–98.
Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA). (2006). “Land capability classification system for forest ecosystems in the oil sands: Field manual for land capability determination.” 〈http://www.environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/7707.pdf〉 (Jan. 31, 2011).
Daniel, D. E., and Wu, Y.-K. (1993). “Compacted clay liners and covers for arid sites.” J. Geotech. Eng., 119(2), 223–237.
Dunn, G. H., and Phillips, R. E. (1991). “Macroporosity of a well-drained soil under no-till and conventional tilliage.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 55(3), 817–823.
Eigenbrod, K. D. (1996). “Effects of cyclic freezing and thawing on volume changes and permeabilities of soft fine-grained soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 33(4), 529–537.
Elrick, D. E., and Reynolds, W. D. (1992). “Infiltration from constant head well permeameters and infiltrometers.” Advances in measurements of soil physical properties: Bringing theory into practice, SSSA Special Publication 30, G. C. Topp, W. D. Reynolds, and R. E. Green, eds., Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI, 1–24.
Elrick, D. E., Reynolds, W. D., and Tan, K. A. (1989). “Hydraulic conductivity measurements in the unsaturated zone using improved well analyses.” Ground Water Monit. Rev., 9(3), 184–193.
International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP). (2003). “Evaluation of the long-term performance of dry cover systems.” Final Rep., Rep. No. 684-02, O’Kane Consultants, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Kelln, C. J. (2008). “The effects of meso-scale topography on the performance of engineered soil covers.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Geological Engineering, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Kessler, S. (2007). “Salinity profiles in reconstructed soils over saline-sodic waste from the oil sands industry.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Soil Science, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Kim, W., and Daniel, D. E. (1992). “Effect of freezing on hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 118(7), 1083–1097.
Konrad, J.-M., and Morgenstern, N. R. (1980). “A mechanistic theory of ice lens formation in fine-grained soils.” Can. Geotech. J., 17(4), 473–486.
Lazorko, H. M. (2008). “Root distribution, activity, and redevelopment for boreal species on reclaimed oil sand minesoils in Alberta, Canada.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Soil Science, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Meier, D. E., and Barbour, S. L. (2002). “Monitoring of cover and watershed performance for soil covers placed over saline-sodic overburden from oilsands mining.” Proc., National Meeting of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation, Lexington, KY, 602–621.
Mine Environment Neutral Drainage (MEND). (2001). “Dry covers.” MEND manual—Prevention and control, Vol. 4, Project 5.4.2d, G. A. Tremblay and C. M. Hogan, eds., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 155–232.
Mitchell, J. K. (1976). Fundamentals of soil behavior, Wiley, New York.
O’Kane, M. (1995). “Instrumentation and monitoring of an engineered soil cover system of acid generating mine waste.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Othman, M. A. (1992). “Effect of freeze-thaw on the structure and hydraulic conductivity of compacted clays.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
Othman, M. A., and Benson, C. H. (1993a). “Effect of freeze-thaw on the hydraulic conductivity of three compacted clays from Wisconsin.” Transportation Research Record 1369, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 118–125.
Othman, M. A., and Benson, C. H. (1993b). “Effects of freeze-thaw on the hydraulic conductivity and morphology of compacted clay.” Can. Geotech. J., 30(2), 236–246.
Reynolds, W. D. (1993). “Saturated hydraulic conductivity: Field measurements.” Soil sampling and methods of analysis, Canadian Society of Soil Science, M. R. Carter, ed., Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL, 599–605.
Reynolds, W. D., Elrick, D. E., and Clothier, B. E. (1985). “The constant head well permeameter: Effect of unsaturated flow.” Soil Sci., 139(2), 172–180.
Sims, J., Elsworth, D., and Cherry, J. (1996). “Stress-dependent flow through fractured clay till: A laboratory study.” Can. Geotech. J., 33(3), 449–457.
Watson, K. W., and Luxmoore, R. J. (1986). “Estimating macroporosity in a forest watershed by use of a tension infiltrometer.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 50(3), 578–582.
Wilson, G. V., and Luxmoore, R. J. (1988). “Infiltration, macroporosity, and mesporosity distribution on two forested watersheds.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 52(2), 329–335.
Wong, L., and Haug, M. (1991). “Cyclical closed-system freeze-thaw permeability testing of soil liners and cover materials.” Can. Geotech. J., 28(6), 784–793.
Yarmuch, M. (2003). “Measurement of soil physical parameters to evaluate soil structure quality in reclaimed oil sands soils, Alberta, Canada.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Renewable Resources, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 10 • October 2011
Pages: 968 - 976
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 1, 2009
Accepted: Feb 8, 2011
Published online: Feb 10, 2011
Published in print: Oct 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.