Reclamation Certification Criteria: Balancing Competing Interests

Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act requires operators to conserve and reclaim land and to obtain a reclamation certificate. The government, in cooperation with industry and other stakeholders, has developed reclamation certification criteria for wellsites and for railways. Criteria are being developed for pipelines, sand and gravel pits, roadways, and other activities. The criteria measure the success of industry's efforts to return disturbed land to equivalent land capability. Factors such as activity type and size, age of the disturbance, geographic location, need for consistency and at the same time flexibility, need for equal treatment between and within industries, administrative and technical simplicity, and stakeholder views are considered when developing the criteria. Some of these factors conflict with each other. This paper describes how the factors are weighed in developing the final criteria.