Alberta Energy Regulator curtails water use by some energy firms
The Alberta Energy Regulator is curtailing withdrawals from the Athabasca River and other water bodies by oil and gas operators because of low flows.
The province’s energy watchdog is restricting water withdrawals under current temporary diversion licences. It is also encouraging energy companies to voluntarily reduce consumption in areas with no mandatory restrictions where rivers have lower than normal water levels, the regulator said on its website Monday.
Temporary diversion licences are issued for diversion of surface and groundwater for up to a year for uses such as dust control, bridge washing and for drilling oil and gas wells.
Alberta Environment and Parks issued a low- flow advisory for the Upper Athabasca River Basin on July 24. It suspended current temporary diversion licences and said no new applications will be accepted.
The AER has applied those restrictions to oil and gas operators in the region.
Jesse Cardinal, co- ordinator of the non- profit group Keepers of the Athabasca, said the restriction doesn’t go far enough.
“When the water’s low, it’s already impacting the fish and navigation, so it should apply to all companies,” Cardinal said, adding the restriction doesn’t apply to major Athabasca waters users Shell, Syncrude and Suncor.
AER spokesman Jordan Fitzgerald said those companies are not in the upper Athabasca geographic area near the Town of Athabasca, where Alberta Environment declared a low- flow advisory.
“Those operations are located in the Lower Athabasca Region and the restrictions put in place by Alberta Environment and Parks do not apply to that area,” he said.
The Athabasca River, fed by glaciers and streams in the Rocky Mountains, requires about 900 cubic metres per second of water in the summer, when the flow is at its peak, to maintain healthy ecosystems, Alberta Environment said on its website. The flow earlier this month was 557 cubic metres per second.
Water from the Athabasca River is used by mines to separate bitumen from clay, sand and water that make up the oilsands, and they have pledged to lower by half the amount of fresh water used in production as the industry counters criticism that it pollutes too much.
Members of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance aim to lower the amount of fresh water used to process bitumen to 0.2 barrels per barrel of bitumen by 2022 from 0.4 now, the group said late last year.
Restrictions have also been placed on other rivers. No temporary diversion licences are being accepted for the Battle River Basin and the Milk River Basin.
For the North Saskatchewan, South Saskatchewan and Peace River basins, no temporary diversion licence applications are being accepted and in some sub- basins, all such application have been suspended or are in the process of being suspended.
The AER said it is working with Alberta Environment and Parks to monitor river flows and will lift restrictions when they return to acceptable levels. Alberta Agriculture said some areas remain parched despite recent rain following an exceptionally dry spring.