Non‐target profiling of bitumen‐influenced waters for the identification of tracers unique to oil sands processed‐affected water (OSPW) in the Athabasca watershed of Alberta, Canada

RATIONALE: The objective of this study was to identify unique chemical tracers of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) to enable definitive discrimination of tailings pond seepage from natural bitumen-influenced waters from the Canadian Alberta McMurray formation. METHODS: The approach involved comparing unknowns from an unprecedented sample set of OSPW (n = 4) and OSPW-affected groundwaters (n = 15) with natural bitumen-influenced …