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Dr. Mary Griffiths, Senior Policy Analyst, The Pembina Institute
We all know that water is the foundation for life. Yet, provided the rivers
flow and there is water in the well, we tend to take it for granted. It is easy
to forget that the overuse and mismanagement of water has been a major factor
in the decline of civilizations. That threat remains, even today. I think we
need to better manage our water resources in Alberta, especially groundwater,
so that we do not use more than nature supplies, either now or in the future.
Many years ago, when teaching geography, I told my students how groundwater
was used to irrigate huge areas of the High Plains in the western United States.
I explained how farmers had to drill deeper and deeper wells, as groundwater
levels fell. We wondered then why they didn’t limit their withdrawals
to protect groundwater resources for future generations. The Canadian Prairies
are vulnerable in the same way.
At first sight Canada appears to have sufficient water, with large rivers flowing
to the north, but the water is unevenly distributed across the country. The
southern Prairie Provinces are dry and subject to drought. While the Dust Bowl
conditions of the 1930s are famous, a study of tree rings shows far longer periods
of drought occurred even earlier in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Ever since measurements started a century ago, temperatures have been rising
and summer flows in rivers across the prairies have been declining. The government
has licensed and allocated 58% of the natural flow of the South Saskatchewan
River (including the Red Deer River). The full allocated volume is often not
used, but since Alberta has an agreement to pass on 50% of flows to other jurisdictions,
there is clearly a problem in dry years. What will happen in the province as,
due to global climate change, snow packs decline and glaciers that help feed
the rivers recede and disappear?
The Alberta government’s Water for Life strategy, announced in 2003,
sets the framework for watershed planning. The new watershed planning and advisory
councils could play an important role in ensuring that water in each region
is managed in a sustainable manner. This will require watershed budgets, which
account for the inflow, storage and use of both surface water and groundwater.
Gathering detailed information on groundwater use and recharge for the whole
province will take years. I believe that Alberta Environment needs more resources
to expand its work and develop a long-term groundwater monitoring and research
program.
My views are based on professional experience. Part of my work at the Pembina
Institute has focused on the use of water for the recovery of oil and bitumen.
For several decades large volumes of fresh water have been injected into conventional
oil wells to enhance oil recovery. This water remains deep underground and does
not flow back to the rivers or soil. As conventional oil reserves become depleted,
the total volume of water used for enhanced oil recovery has declined. It is
my hope that Alberta Environment’s new policy will lead to further reductions.
I am especially concerned about the large and increasing volumes of water being
used in the north to extract bitumen from the oil sands, which underlie one
fifth of the province. When bitumen is mined, two to four-and-a-half barrels
of water are required to produce one barrel of synthetic crude oil. The volume
of water allocated from the Athabasca River for bitumen mining and upgrading
is already twice the volume used each year by the City of Calgary — a
population of one million people. Two Pembina Institute publications, Oil Sands
Fever and Down to the Last Drop, explain the specific impacts of diverting water
from the Athabasca River, draining wetlands and creating enormous tailings ponds
to hold contaminated wastewaters.
In addition to surface water, significant quantities of groundwater are also
used in the extraction. As over 90% of the oil sands deposits are too deep to
mine, the bitumen must be extracted “in situ” by drilling wells.
In most projects, steam is injected to heat the bitumen so that it flows and
can be pumped to the surface. The majority of projects use groundwater to generate
steam. Although some companies use saline water from deep aquifers, about one-third
of the total requirements are supplied by fresh groundwater. As new projects
are planned, the question arises: Will this use of groundwater be sustainable?
In a recent Pembina Institute report, Troubled Waters, Troubling Trends, my
colleagues and I outline what must be done to encourage water conservation in
the oil industry. Alberta Environment must strictly implement its new policy
requiring companies to seek alternatives to fresh water. Water use targets must
be established for the oil sector, as proposed in the Water for Life strategy.
Equally important, the oil industry should pay fees for their use of fresh water.
The revenue from these fees should be dedicated to improve knowledge of the
status of the groundwater resource in Alberta and to research new technologies.
This knowledge is essential for wise water management. We can no longer afford
to take our water for granted.
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