ABSTRACT
Oil sands extraction is a water-intensive industrial activity. Processed water is a major by-product of bitumen production in the oil sands region of Alberta. As a result, existing watersheds are damaged while new bodies of water, such as tailings ponds and end pit lakes, are being planned and fashioned by corporate entities in reclamation plans. We consider an array of such proposed and existing aquatic mitigation landscapes and critically assess the technical work and policies that underpin them. Throughout the region, altered watercourses will prevail as dozens of new anthropogenic lakes are formed and will require ongoing interventions. This chapter takes up these fluid examples of reclamation to consider the oil sands region in the Anthropocene. Altered land- and waterscapes provide a window into a future characterized by altered relations between humans and other beings.
