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TA I L I N G S have tried a number of methods, such as cyclone separation, gypsum additives and flocculant treatments, to reduce the time it takes for suspended fine tailings particles to consolidate to a level that would allow reclamation of storage facilities to begin—a process that normally takes decades, leading to an ongoing need for extended tailings storage facilities. Although these ponds have been managed and monitored, their extent— estimated at about 170 km2 of surface area in 2010 by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, containing more than 220 billion gallons of tailings fluids—and toxic ingredients have been contentious issues involving the producers, regulators and the public at large. The intensity of concern was amplified in 2008, when an estimated 1,600 migrating ducks were found dead in a Syncrude Canada-owned tailings pond, trapped in sludge floating on the surface after landing in an area in which the company's bird-deterrent systems had failed. A year later, Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) issued Directive 74, which mandated new industry-wide criteria for tailings management and annual reporting on modified tailings plans. The directive set out new requirements for the regulation of tailings operations associated with mineable oil sands. It specified performance criteria for the reduction of fluid tailings and the formation of 'trafficable' (capable of supporting the equipment and traffic necessary to incorporate the tailings into a dry reclaimed landscape) deposits. These criteria, according to the directive's preamble, "are required to ensure that the ERCB can hold mineable oil sands operators accountable for tailings management." To comply with the directive, producers are required to make submissions to the ERCB on how they will meet the new requirements and identify any project-specific constraints that may have a bearing on meeting the requirements. "Requirements will be phased in and adapted, as approved by the Board, to take account of particular mining and tailings plans, facilities, and the status of a project," according to the directive, and "the ERCB recognizes that fluid tailings management is developing and that operators may need flexibility to apply technologies and techniques that best suit the circumstances of particular projects. The ERCB will consider submissions of operators and will determine projectspecific requirements related to the directive." Under the directive, producers must regularly report their updated tailings management performance to the board, compared with their approved tailings plans. In response, oil sands producers Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Suncor Energy, Syncrude Canada, Teck Resources and Total E&P; Canada established the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium in late 2010, described at the time as a unified effort to advance tailings management by making tailings-related technical information more broadly available COMPANY PROFILE- PAID ADVERTISEMENT Off Highway Haul T ruck Engineering Services Technical Capabilities Pioneer Solutions, LLC 24800 Rockwell Drive Cleveland, OH 44117-1203 216-383-3400 www.pioneersolutionsllc.com Pioneer Solutions, LLC was formed in September 2004 and primarily consists of the former Euclid-Hitachi off highway haul truck engineering department, at the time when Hitachi Construction Machinery discontinued their construction and mining truck operations in the United States. 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