Base of Groundwater Protection
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As of April 4, 2005, this task has been taken over by the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. Oil and gas industry requests should now be forwarded to AGS.
Alberta Environment defines an aquifer containing usable groundwater as any strata capable of producing water with a total dissolved solids content of less than 4,000 mg/L. Strata may be sandstones, siltstones, coals or fractured shales. The EUB provides information on the depth of usable groundwater, otherwise known as the Base of Groundwater Protection, to the oil and gas industry through its publication ST-55: Alberta’s Usable Groundwater Base of Groundwater Protection Information, released in June 1995.
For almost every township in the province, one of the following types of datum exists in the database:
- Reference well information
- Township depth information
- Formation information
Where no data exist, there were insufficient data or minimal data available at time of publication to determine an appropriate Base of Groundwater Protection value or formation.
Where reference well or township depth information is available, the oil and gas industry is expected to use that information in accordance with the processes outlined in ST-55 to determine an appropriate Base of Groundwater Protection value. However, where only formation data are available to define the Base of Groundwater Protection, or no information for the location of interest is available, the oil and gas industry regularly contacts Alberta Geological Survey to determine a specific depth.
Last modified: September 5, 2006