The Alberta oil sands (AOS), Canada, represent a vital energy resource
however, the extraction of oil from these deposits poses significant environmental challenges. In particular, the eventual reclamation of significant volumes of waste materials is required. As a potential solution to incorporate and remediate AOS mine wastes in-situ, a pilot-scale pit lake, Lake Miwasin (LM), was constructed in 2017-18. It used a combination of coagulated and flocculated fluid fine tailings (bottom substrate) capped with a blend of oil-sands process affected water and runoff water from the surrounding catchment. The objective of the study described here is to assess the resultant surface water quality of this artificial lake and its regional comparability with natural systems. Furthermore, we explored the physicochemical characteristics, the mechanisms regulating lake water chemistry, and calculated various water quality indices for both LM and surrounding natural water bodies. Based on water quality indices, our study results showed that the overall water quality of LM's surface water was not yet similar to surrounding water bodies in the AOS regions. Surface water from LM is slightly alkaline with elevated total dissolved solids (TDS) and differs chemically from surrounding water bodies. Predominant ions in LM are Na