In a television interview with the mine operators, they characterized their process as helping the environment in as much as it takes oil saturated sand, removes the oil thereby cleaning the sand, and returning the oil-free sand to it's original site. A cleanup operation if you will.
At the gold mines of Nevada near Carlin in talking to the people there, they said a percentage of their revenue is set aside for restoration projects. They have a very large open pit that relies on dewatering to stay dry. Long term plan is to turn the area into a lake and spend the money set aside to restore and improve the land. One guy told me:
"My dream is to take my grand kids fishing on the lake and tell them that I helped to create it"
I am confident that his dream will come true.