21. The alternative to use of the lake for waste disposal was building of tailing ponds which would have displaced wetlands. 22. There have been five mine tailings pond spills from 1995 to 1999, one of which resulted in a major fish kill. 23. The close proximity of the tailing ponds to the river drastically increases the likelihood of contamination due to ground water leakages. 24. Moreover, these methanogens change the structure of the tailings pond and help the pore water efflux to reuse for processing oil sands. 25. As the lake is downstream from abandoned uranium mine sites and their associated tailings ponds , the water is significantly contaminated with cobalt. 26. For every barrel of oil produced approximately one barrel of water is contaminated in the process and deposited into a tailings pond . 27. In 1997, Suncor admitted that their tailing ponds had been leaking 1, 600 cubic meters of toxic water into the river a day. 28. :Floatovoltaics are an emerging form of PV systems that float on the surface of irrigation canals, water reservoirs, quarry lakes, and tailing ponds . 29. Also known as "'bird balls "', they were developed initially to prevent birds from landing on toxic tailing ponds produced by mining operations. 30. By 2010 Suncor had transformed their first tailings pond , Pond One, into Wapisiw Lookout, the first reclaimed settling basin in the oil sands.
