GCOS among the first reclamation pioneers
It acquired its first reclamation approval under the Reclamation Act in the late 1970s
Pond 1 has been carefully designed with small streams (swales) and mounds (hummocks) to help reproduce natural drainage patterns.
The first Great Canadian Oil Sands plant (now Suncor) opened in 1967 and this was soon followed by the first operational reclamation beginning in 1971 on the site of Tar Island Dyke which impounded the first tailings pond.
One of the original employees of this ambitious venture, Cliff Berry, became the first reclamation supervisor soon after operations startup in 1967. Cliff initiated lab and field tests with the help of the Alberta Department of Agriculture leading to the first operational-scale reclamation.
After Cliff’s retirement Don Klym took over as reclamation supervisor starting in 1974. Don shares these early years memories in the following story. The primary focus was the reclamation of tailings sand dykes and overburden dumps. At the beginning we were focused on surface revegetation of the materials that were created from the mining and extraction process.