Stable isotope data (oxygen-18 and deuterium) from surveys of lakes, wetlands, rivers, and input waters across the South Athabasca Oil Sands region, Alberta, 2007–2009

J.J Gibson,S.J Birks,M.C Moncur

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2018.12.074

Abstract

Oxygen-18 and deuterium analyses of water samples are provided from a regional survey of lakes, wetlands, soil waters, groundwaters, and snowpack samples collected in the Southern Athabasca Oil Sands (SAOS) region, Alberta, Canada, mainly during 2007–2009. Lake, wetland, and river sampling were conducted by helicopter during late summer, capturing conditions close to peak evaporative enrichment. Shallow soil water from the unsaturated zone was also collected in late summer, whereas deeper groundwaters from Quaternary aquifers, Quaternary channels, and uppermost Cretaceous strata, were collected primarily as part of winter drilling programs by industrial partners. Snowpack samples were collected in late March/early April, prior to significant spring melt. This dataset includes 1576 isotopic analyses made on 788 water samples as well as selected isotope mass balance model outputs (lake evaporation/inflow and water yield to lakes). These basic model data are provided to facilitate evaluation of the method as a tool for spatial mapping of water yield and its interannual variability. Details and further discussion on the isotope mass balance approach are provided in “Mapping water yield distribution across the southern Athabasca Oil Sands area: baseline surveys applying isotope mass balance of lakes” (Gibson et al., 2019). Overall, the data are expected to be useful, in comparison with local and regional datasets, for water resource management and planning, including design of monitoring networks and environmental impact assessments for oil sands projects.

Highlights

Stable isotope data from surveys of lakes, wetlands, rivers, and input waters across the South Athabasca Oil Sands region, Alberta, 2007–2009
Oxygen-18 and deuterium analyses of water samples are provided from a regional survey of lakes, wetlands, soil waters, groundwaters, and snowpack samples collected in the Southern Athabasca Oil Sands (SAOS) region, Alberta, Canada, mainly during 2007–2009
Shallow soil water from the unsaturated zone was collected in late summer, whereas deeper groundwaters from Quaternary aquifers, Quaternary channels, and uppermost Cretaceous strata, were collected primarily as part of winter drilling programs by industrial partners

Summary

Site selection

Lakes were selected for water sampling based on a stratified, random sampling framework designed to provide a representative selection of lakes across the region. The study domain initally included 28,000 km within the SAOS area, as well as an additional area of 24,000 km in adjacent Saskatechewan, the latter of which was not sampled as part of this survey. The general approach for selecting lakes was to target lakes from a representative range of classes (Table 1). A broad distribution of lakes was sampled, especially within classes 2–5 (i.e. lakes ranging in size from 0.1–50 km). A map showing the resulting distribution of lake sampling sites across the region suggests slightly higher density of sampling points in the northeastern quadrant of the SAOS where lake density is higher, coverage extends across the entire region (Fig. 1)

Water sampling and analysis

Findings

Model data outputs