Development and Application of Soil Quality Criteria for Alberta's Resource Extraction Industries

Soil quality criteria for Alberta's resource extraction industries were prepared by the Soil Quality Criteria Subcommittee of the Alberta Soils Advisory Committee. The document produced was intended to be a scientific and technical manual for use by professionals. The criteria developed were compiled from a review of the pertinent literature and ongoing research and tempered in some situations by making the "best" guess where data were incomplete. Criteria were established for each of the Plains, Eastern Slopes and Northern Forested Regions of Alberta. They included the topics of soil mapping and sampling procedures, analytical requirements and criteria for evaluating the suitability of soil materials for revegetation. Criteria tables were developed for evaluating the suitability of topsoil and subsoil in the Plains Region, surface material (upper lift) and subsurface material (lower lift) in the Northern Forest Region, and root zone material in the Eastern Slopes Region. The criteria are used by a wide range of practitioners to assist in evaluating reclamation success which is defined in terms of equivalent land capability in Alberta.  Specifically, the criteria are used to evaluate the baseline situation relative to soils, develop
materials handling plans, predict the resultant post-disturbance soil characteristics, and determine the actual post-disturbance soil characteristics. Significant advances in "environmental soil science" research and field practices currently used relative to resource extraction activities provides the opportunity and the basis for expanding and improving the existing soil quality criteria. The updating of the criteria could include further subdivision of the three defined regions, adding criteria for additional chemical and physical properties, ranking or weighting of the various soil parameters, and consideration of the timing for completing post-disturbance soil quality measurements. This revision should be completed in a manner that results in a manageable and "user friendly" system that will be readily used by various practitioners.