Natural Resources Extraction: Stressors and Impact Management - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 149

mitigate stressor impacts generated by the activities associated with harvesting of these
resources and (b) develop and implement remediation technology to restore impacted
lands to pre-impact states.
The issues pertinent to sustainable practices in geoenvironmental engineering in respect
to nonrenewable resource extraction operations fall within the jurisdiction of land use,
i.e., sustainable land use. In most instances, activities generally associated with extraction
of nonrenewable natural resources such as base metals begin with operations designed
to extract the host ore from the ground through open-pit and/or underground mining
(tunnel and shaft mining). Ores extracted from base metal mines include (in alphabeti-
cal order) copper, gold, iron, lead, molybdenum, platinum, silver, uranium, and zinc. The
predominant base metal ores are those that contain copper, iron, lead, and zinc. These
are primarily obtained from lode deposits using both open-pit and underground mining
techniques. Beneiciation, ore dressing, and mineral extraction will generate waste materi-
als in addition to processing wastes and discharges that ind their way into the land envi-
ronment. The nature of these and their impacts on the land environment and particularly
with land use constitute the major concern in this chapter. The danger that one faces is the
cascading or domino effect generated by these activities and discharges.
In respect to the deep underground in situ extraction processes illustrated in Figure 5.4,
the various processes (SAGD, CSS, and fracking) have their proponents and opponents,
vis-à-vis environmental impacts, etc. Although the issues between the different parties are
important considerations, these are not germane to the discussions in this chapter. What is
of importance is the identiication of the stressor sources, the types of stressors produced,
and their impact on the geoenvironment. In these cases, the impact problems are associ-
ated with fugitive contaminated water, i.e., water not captured as recycled-treated water
used for steam injection and/or used as fracking luid. The vulnerability of neighboring
aquifers to contamination is a key element in information gathering. These pieces of infor-
mation are important because they will provide the clues for development of geoenvi-
ronmental engineering practices necessary to mitigate the adverse impacts. The emphasis
on sustainable geoenvironmental engineering practice is necessary because there are actions
that can be undertaken to reduce and even minimize adverse geoenvironmental impacts.
These, however, are operational actions , i.e., actions that are associated with the implementa-
tion of the processes themselves.
5.3 Resource Extraction and Stressor Impacts
The discussions in this section relate to four categories in this grouping of resource extrac-
tion and processing industry operations. These categories include those industries dealing
with (1) ores in metalliferrous mining for recovery of various types of metals, etc., (2) ores
from nonmetal resource mining and processing such as aggregates, clays, etc. (3) hydro-
carbon resources extracted from the ground such as oil sands (formerly known as tar
sands), and (4) deep underground in situ extraction of tight oil and shale gas. These are
operations mounted to process the ores or liquid/gaseous resources recovered from the
various forms of mining and drilling activities. The products obtained from these indus-
tries serve as raw materials for their associated downstream industries. The associated
downstream industries are discussed in detail in Chapter 7.