The City of Moncton has reassured residents that their drinking water is safe after a company was caught drilling without a permit near the city's watershed earlier this week.

Ensor Nicholson, who is in charge of the water supply in Moncton, said the oil-exploration work in the Turtle Creek watershed was roughly 15 kilometres away from the reservoir, far enough to reduce the risk of affecting the tap water.

"It certainly wouldn't appear that there's been any contamination," he told CBC News. The reservoir provides roughly 130,000 people with their drinking water in Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.

"It's not a permitted activity … so we're concerned about these types of things when they're not necessarily being monitored," he added.

The Department of the Environment first learned that Logan Drilling of Nova Scotia was drilling for shale oil — oil in rock form — though a complaint from a homeowner and the environmental non-profit Petitcodiac Riverkeeper group. The company was operating without a permit roughly 100 metres inside the protected zone.

The company has stopped drilling and left the area. The Department of Environment said the company must clean up the site, where circular chunks of rock littered around a 10 centimetre wide pipe stuck deep into the ground were left behind.

Environment Minister Roland Haché said it is not yet clear if the drilling caused any damage to the site. He said the department is reviewing its guidelines to determine if exploration activity near a watershed is in fact illegal, after which time fines could be considered.

"Once we have the facts, we will make the necessary decisions at that time," he said.

Homeowner wants better monitoring

The homeowner who reported the drilling, Christian Theriault, said the incident is a sign the province must step up its monitoring efforts.

"There is no monitoring being done by the province," he said. "They responded real quick to the telephone call, but they're not in sufficient numbers to be able to monitor this thing."

He noted that there was only one employee responsible for the area, and while this person does a good job, he could not possibly keep on top of everything.

Riverkeeper Tim Van Hinte said the incident raises serious questions about the province's current policies on oil, gas and mineral exploration.

"If I was a citizen, I'd be asking the question, 'Who's looking after this water supply, and how come we didn't know about it?'" he said.

He said the incident was particularly worrisome because the province is starting to explore mining for other minerals, such as uranium, and homeowners don't have a clear sense of the regulations.

City wants watershed protected

The city said it is also frustrated with current protection measures, or a lack thereof.

Coun. Steven Boyce said the city has been trying for almost two years to get better protection for the watershed, to no avail.

"I have no faith whatsoever that the Environment Department or this government is sincere with respect to protecting the environment and protecting the watershed," he said.

Mayor George LeBlanc is writing a letter to the province to express his displeasure at the incident. He said at the very least, he would like the province to tell him when anything is happening in the watershed.

"If somebody was in your backyard, I think you have the right to be notified of it. This is our backyard, as far as I'm concerned. It's our watershed. It's very important to us," he said.

"We need … to ensure that we get notice if somebody is going to be in our watershed, whether it's land owned by the City of Moncton or not. If it affects our watershed then it's important to us."

The environment minister told city council last year that they shouldn't worry because activities in the area were strictly controlled.