Sustainability
Water Management Benefits
CVW™: A Technology Supporting Safe Management of Oil Sands Mine Water and Progressive Remediation of Tailings
Oil sands mining operations face significant water management challenges. Froth treatment tailings (FTT) from these operations contain residual water, solvent, bitumen, critical minerals, and suspended solids. These materials are stored in large tailings ponds that become sources of environmental concerns through naphthenic acid contamination and other water fouling that may also impact Indigenous use. Oil sands tailings ponds are also a source of critical air contaminants including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), methane emissions, naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), and pyrite.
CVW™ has been developed to sustainably remediate FTT through recovery of high quality hydrocarbons (bitumen and solvent), treatment of related oil sands mine water (OSMW), and tailings reclamation while economically producing critical minerals – titanium, zircon, and potentially rare earths. Water recovered by CVW™ is actively treated to reduce particulate matter, residual hydrocarbons that foul conventional water treatment technologies, and dissolved organics including naphthenic acids. CVW™ water treatment enables effective re-use of OSMW, reducing water use intensity thereby reducing fresh water requirements while also reducing the volumes of OSMW stored in tailings ponds. Further, CVW™ offers an opportunity to integrate challenging FTT into broader water treatment aspirations.
Current Water Quality Challenges in the Oil Sands Region
Industry-wide, tailings ponds contain approximately 1.8 billion cubic meters of tailings and OSMW. Naphthenic acids are naturally found in crude oils, including oil sands bitumen. OSMW contains over 50 parts per million of naphthenic acids, which is at toxic concentrations for aquatic life.
Alberta’s Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee
The Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee (OSMWSC) was formed in 2024 by Minister Schulz and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas. The Committee has been tasked with assessing options for safe management of OSMW and reclamation of tailings ponds. We were invited to speak to the Committee and had significant engagement with the Committee to-date.
The OSMWSC released their initial set of five recommendations in June, 2025 and an additional four recommendations in September, 2025. We have reviewed the Committee’s recommendations and are encouraged that our proprietary CVW™ technology is aligned with and can support many of the Committee’s recommendations including:
Recommendation 2 of 9: Sharing of OSMW Between Oil Sands Operations – CVW™ produces higher quality treated water meeting certain industrial re-use standards, enhancing the potential of OSMW sharing efforts while reducing water-use intensity and reducing the volume of OSMW stored in tailings ponds by over 18 million cubic meters annually.
Recommendation 3 of 9: Sharing of OSMW Across Watersheds – CVW™ supports the OSMWSC’s preference for local utilization and management of OSMW by treating OSMW at oil sands mining operations, keeping it entirely within the Lower Athabasca River sub-watershed. As CVW™’s water would be suitable for regional approaches to water management, we could support the potential re-use of water within the watershed.
Recommendation 4 of 9: Deep Well Disposal Only for Economically Untreated OSMW – CVW™ can economically treat 84 million cubic meters annually of OSMW, preserving it within the hydrological cycle, and generating positive economics through hydrocarbon and critical mineral recovery, stimulating the economy through high quality job creation and government revenues.
Recommendation 5 of 9: Establishing Standardized Measurement Methods for Naphthenic Acids – CVW™ can prevent over 80% of the naphthenic acid deposition within tailings ponds, reducing the need for extensive measurement by eliminating contamination at-source.
Recommendation 6 of 9: Developing and Conducting Pilots on OSMW Treatment Technologies – CVW™ has been extensively piloted with industry and government support at an investment of over $100 million and advancement to TRL8 status. This includes dedicated water treatment testing to significantly reduce constituents of concern in FTT, identified by the OSMWSC as a potential issue related to water capped end pit lakes. CVW™ water treatment utilizes conventional and proven technologies that are uniquely optimized for processing FTT to meet many emerging quality criteria identified by stakeholders.
Recommendation 7 of 9: Expediting the Establishment of Release Standards for Treated OSMW – CVW™ reduces substances of concern from FTT, including the recovery of high value bitumen and solvents, meeting the draft targets identified by the OSMWSC Technology-Based Effluent Limits and those recently proposed by the local Indigenous communities. CVW™ treated water from FTT can support potential integration with water treatment objectives.
Recommendation 8 of 9: Establishing Criteria that End Pit Lakes with Treated Tailings Must Meet – CVW™ can reduce the constituents of concern prior to deposition into end pit lakes and has been developed to support water treatment post mine closure. CVW™ is uniquely suited to treat FTT, which the OSMWSC notes to be a particular challenge for end pit lakes and could enable integration of FTT into broader water management strategies.
Recommendation 9 of 9: Making Oil Sands Mine Water Monitoring More Inclusive – CVW™ addresses many of the key constituents of concern identified by the OSMWSC, and we are working towards alignment with Indigenous use water quality criteria expectations through our framework agreement and the active participation in the Crown Indigenous Working Group review process.
Indigenous Perspectives
The Crown-Indigenous Working Group (CIWG) was established to address water quality concerns in the oil sands region from the perspective of the local Indigenous communities. The CIWG is reviewing methods of improved management of OSMW to reduce the risk of continued tailings growth from operations and to allow for future reclamation of mine sites.
In November of 2023, the CIWG published its Assessment of Alternatives to Discharge of Oil Sands Mine Water in which they rank ten options to manage OSMW while posing the least risk to local communities and environment. The CVW™ technology ranks very favourably within two of the CIWG’s re-use options:
Learn More About Our Evidence-Based Water Management Solutions
Access our comprehensive guide to better understand the water treatment benefits of the CVW™ technology.
Significant Freshwater Draw Savings Through CVW™
Industry, including the oil sands operators, use surface (lakes and rivers), ground water, and recycled water to service their operations. Much of the surface and ground water sources are the same sources used to supply provincial consumptive needs.
With industry-wide implementation, CVW™ can treat up to 84 million cubic meters of OSMW per year, reducing freshwater draw and cutting water-use intensity by over 15%.
Two Different Types of Tailings Exist
Froth Treatment Tailings (FTT): These tailings are generated while preparing bitumen froth for upgrading by treating it with solvent. FTT contains the highest concentration of challenging elements.
Extraction Tailings: These tailings are comprised primarily of water and coarse sands, are relatively benign compared to FTT, and represent the bulk of tailings volume.
How CVW™ Improves Water Quality
>85%
Bitumen recovery from FTT
>80%
Naphthenic acids avoided from deposition into tailings ponds
~95%
Reduction in suspended solids
>90%
Solvent recovery from FTT
By recovering hydrocarbons and the use of a highly efficient thickener, CVW™ is able to avoid the use of tailings ponds for FTT and deliver ready-to-reclaim solid depositions that comply with regulatory requirements including Directive 085.
Key Oil Sands Mine Water Management Benefits
Future Water Management
The OSMW is currently stored in vast tailings ponds with no practical pathway to return this water to the environment. By implementing the CVW™ technology, we can provide cleaner water and enable oil sands operators to reduce fresh water draw from the Athabasca River while making the existing tailings ponds more amenable to treatment.