Tailings pond reclaimed in Fort McMurray
To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 8.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.
Suncor celebrated the completion of a first-of-its-kind project north of Fort McMurray Thursday.
A former tailings pond is being reclaimed as Wapisiw Lookout.
The name Wapisiw is Cree for "swan" - a symbol of the transformation of the site.
The tailings pond known as Pond 1 was deccommissioned in 2006, with reclamation work beginning the following year. Tailings were removed to other tailings pond, and the land was first filled in with sand. Top soil was laid on the sand, and then landscaped, with hills and valleys being sculpted in an effort to recreate the natural landscape.
The 2.2 square kilometer site was transformed into a tailings pond in 1967. Before that, it was a mix of wetlands and forest. They are trying to recreate that, and have brought in over 600,000 trees and shrubs. Wildlife has already begun to return.
Sean Wells, manager of Research Engineering at Suncor, is proud of the work the company has done.
"It means the world. It's not often engineers - especially those working in tailings - get a chance to show off"
This was one of nine tailings ponds on the Suncor site. Two of the remaining eight are scheduled to be reclaimed by 2019.
