Oil sands
Oil sands recovery techniques create huge amounts of contaminated waste water, which is stored in "tailing ponds". In 2010, there were about 170 square kilometres of these ponds in the oil sands region of Alberta. Left to a normal process of degradation it would take decades for this waste to become environmentally safe. On 27 August 2010, Shell Canada announced the opening of a commercial plant designed to speed the cleaning of the waste in these ponds, at its oil sands production facility in Alberta. The plant uses a technique developed by Shell Canada at a cost of C$30 million. Known as "atmospheric fines drying" or AFD, it takes the thick liquid output of the oil production process and over a period of several weeks with the use of a special flocculant and drying techniques, reduces it to a safe dirt-like compound. Shell Canada is making this technology available free of charge to other oil sands production companies.