"[3] The Clark Hot Water Extraction (CHWE) process used by Suncor and Syncrude in their open-pit mining operations, to extract bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands (AOS) produces large quantities of tailings pond sludge which remains stable for decades.
By 1990 it was considered to be the "imminent environmental constraint to future use of the hot water process.
According to Syncrude's 2010 Baseline Report submitted to the Energy Resources Conservation Board (since replaced by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the Mildred Lake and Aurora North leases together contain: the Mildred Lake Settling Basin (MLSB), Southwest Sand Storage (SWSS), West In-Pit (WIP), East In-Pit (EIP), Southwest In-Pit (SWIP), Aurora Settling Basin (ASB) and Aurora East Pit Northeast (AEPN-E).
Thirdly, the fines that are not captured elsewhere settle and compact in the basin, and are later pumped out for long term storage.
[7] For construction purposes the embankment was considered to be in a collection of 30 "cells", each with a crest length of about 600 metres.
Acceptable side slopes were determined on a cell-by-cell basis, based on the strength of available materials and foundation movement.
The average height of the embankment is quoted to be 40 m,[10] and a check on this using four cross sections[7] yields 45 m, which is of the same order of magnitude.
The SWSS facility[2] is located in the southwest corner of the Mildred Lake lease area.
This is located to the South East of the Aurora North lease, adjacent to the Muskeg River.