While the long-term effects of the spill are still being investigated by Alberta Environment & Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD), testing of undiluted process water has found contaminants breached provincial guidelines. Specifically, the water did not meet a standard 96-hour acute toxicity test that involves releasing rainbow trout into the sample and gauging the survival rate.
It is believed the fish died as a result of the naphthenic acid concentration, a group of compounds with variable toxicity that occurs naturally in bitumen.
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