Water
Water is high-value commodity and COSIA’s Water Environment Priority Area (EPA) is looking for innovative and sustainable water solutions to reduce water use and increase water recycling rates at oil sands mining and in situ (in place) operations without environmental burden shifting (causing negative environmental impacts in other areas).
The Water EPA identified key issues facing the industry and is working to address the following:
- improving the use and management of all water resources, fresh, saline and recycled;
- creating a collaborative regional water management solution that links mining and in situ supply/demand;
- accelerating the development and commercialization of water treatment technologies;
- developing game-changing steam generation technology to reduce water used to produce steam for in situ oil sands development; and
- managing salt accumulation in water streams on mine sites during active mining.
COSIA is the overarching collaborative hub within which companies set priorities, drive and share innovation and accelerate the pace of environmental performance improvements.
Examples of current projects include: