ABOUT PERMAFROSTNET
PermafrostNET (NSERC) unites key scholars and stakeholders from government agencies, industry and Indigenous communities with the common goal of boosting Canada’s ability to adapt to large scale permafrost thaw. NSERC PermafrostNet offers the critical mass, diversity of expertise and communication that no single research group or government agency has. It supports the work of 15 professors at 11 universities and has 31 collaborators and more than 40 partnering organizations nationally and internationally. The network aims to train 60 highly qualified people, including doctoral students, master’s students, postdoctoral fellows and northern research assistants. Stakeholders include federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments as well as northern communities, resource exploitation and construction companies, scientists studying phenomena affected by permafrost, and international organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). NSERC PermafrostNet is funded by partners and participating institutions along with Can$5.5 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks. |
ABOUT MY RESEARCH
During the 1960s and 1970s over 50 waste disposal sumps were constructed in the western Arctic during oil and gas exploration. These sumps were open pits during waste disposal, subsequently covered at closure. Permafrost, then at a mean annual temperature below -7 °C in most of the region was assumed to provide an impermeable containment medium in perpetuity. Warming of permafrost now denies this possibility. Management of these contaminated sites requires estimation of the time remaining before permafrost ceases to be an effective containment.
I am conducting a study sump stability in contrasting terrain, the outer Mackenzie delta, the lower Mackenzie Delta and the adjacent uplands. The project samples sump materials to determine the leaching of contaminants into undisturbed terrain. These data will be compared with past site investigations to assess the extent of degradation in the past ~20 years. This research is critical data for land managers in the region and for the national response to an undesirable consequence of permafrost warming. The main partners for this project is Steve Kokelj (Northwest Territories Geological Survey), Charles Klengenberg (Inuvialuit Regional Corporation) and Tim Ensom (Department of Lands NWT).
During the 1960s and 1970s over 50 waste disposal sumps were constructed in the western Arctic during oil and gas exploration. These sumps were open pits during waste disposal, subsequently covered at closure. Permafrost, then at a mean annual temperature below -7 °C in most of the region was assumed to provide an impermeable containment medium in perpetuity. Warming of permafrost now denies this possibility. Management of these contaminated sites requires estimation of the time remaining before permafrost ceases to be an effective containment.
I am conducting a study sump stability in contrasting terrain, the outer Mackenzie delta, the lower Mackenzie Delta and the adjacent uplands. The project samples sump materials to determine the leaching of contaminants into undisturbed terrain. These data will be compared with past site investigations to assess the extent of degradation in the past ~20 years. This research is critical data for land managers in the region and for the national response to an undesirable consequence of permafrost warming. The main partners for this project is Steve Kokelj (Northwest Territories Geological Survey), Charles Klengenberg (Inuvialuit Regional Corporation) and Tim Ensom (Department of Lands NWT).