Regional sites 
As part of the regulatory approval of the Jackpine Mine, Fisheries and Oceans issued an Authorization for the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat. The Authorization stipulates that monitoring must be undertaken until such time that permanent fish habitat gains at the prescribed compensation ratio have been achieved.
The first component of the Jackpine Mine compensation plan was the construction of a 47 ha lake near the outlet of Muskeg Creek. Construction of the compensation lake began in the winter of 2008-2009 with clearing and ditching to dewater the muskeg. The lake was excavated during the winter of 2009/2010, with infilling of the basin occurring in the spring of 2010. The lake is positioned in the Muskeg Creek watershed, with the northern basin of the waterbody replacing approximately 300 m of the downstream end of the original Muskeg Creek channel.
As the consultant responsible for implementing the 2010 and 2011 Jackpine Mine Lake Monitoring Programs, Hatfield was responsible for the collection of a wide range of environmental data, including:
- Water samples for laboratory analysis of conventional variables, major ions, nutrients, organic compounds, total and dissolved metals, and chronic toxicity to biological test organisms;
- Sediment samples for laboratory analysis of physical variables, carbon content, metals, CCME 4-fraction hydrocarbons, target and alkylated PAHs, and chronic toxicity to biological test organisms;
- Periphyton, zooplankton and benthic macro-invertebrate collections;
- Large- and small-bodied fish species collections, using minnow trapping and gillnetting sampling techniques to determine species composition, and estimate biomass production; and
- Installation and operation of a continuous water-level monitoring station, with supporting flow measurements collected to develop the stage-discharge rating curve.
The intent of the monitoring program is to ensure the lake is progressing towards becoming a self-sustaining ecosystem at an acceptable rate, by utilizing scientifically defensible sampling methodologies to track trophic status, provide appropriate data to inform adaptive management decisions, and quantify habitat gains and fish biomass production in order to confirm the amount of compensation that has been created offsets Project-related losses.
