Environment Committee on June 9th, 2009

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

On page 7 of your PowerPoint presentation, there is an overview of aquifers. Thirty regional aquifers are being evaluated, but the Paskapoo aquifer assessment seems to have been completed in 2009.

Did you assess the impact of oil sands development on water reserves? Could you give us a report to assure us that groundwater has not been contaminated as a result of the development of various oil sands projects? Is that report public?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

The short answer is no. We are not able to provide facts. However, as Dr. Boerner indicated earlier, we have conducted some very preliminary characterizations before mapping the aquifers.

You asked us whether we were familiar with the Alberta aquifer. I'm going to take the time to give you an explanation, because this is extremely important. There is no aquifer either in Alberta or Canada. Aquifers are formations on different scales. It goes from an extremely localized scale—a few wells, to a more local scale, let's say a municipality that is approximately 100 km squared, to the scale of thousands of square kilometres, which the Geological Survey of Canada calls the regional scale.

Slide 7 presents a series of aquifers. It's quite schematic, and shouldn't be looked at as delimiting the aquifers. This system is presented on a regional scale, but it doesn't include all the aquifers in Alberta, far from it. This needs to be quite clear.

To answer your question, we don't know the details and we cannot give you a detailed report, but we do know the geology, as Mr. Boerner said. We know the geological system, meaning the reservoirs that, by the way, do not just include aquifers. There are three things: aquifers, aquitards and aquicludes. I apologize for using technical terms, but I have to. There is a distinction between the three. In the case of the Athabasca oil sands, the BV or buried paleovalleys are fairly shallow and relatively quaternary channels, but—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you.

Ms. Duncan.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I note in your report that you're planning, with Alberta and Saskatchewan, to complete the study in the Beaver Valley area by 2012. Has that fieldwork actually started?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

The discussions have started, but the study itself is supposed to begin this summer.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Can you give us an estimate of what it will cost to complete this study in the complete Beaver Valley area?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

We estimate it will cost approximately $3 million per aquifer over about three years. So that's approximately $1 million per year on average.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Do you have those resources?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

We do.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

You're aware of the big Canadian report on groundwater that was completed by Dr. Jim Bruce, who just testified here. He also documents in his study unanswered questions identified by the Alberta Research Council in 2007. There is a whole list of issues on unknowns about groundwater in that area in northern Alberta.

Dr. Rivera, I think you alluded to the fact that we know something about the geology in the area, but we don't specifically know about the aquifers. In order to make any determinations on whether or not either the in situ or the mining will have an impact, is it necessary to know about the specific aquifers and where they're located?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

Absolutely.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So we can't definitively say right now whether or not there are impacts, or what the extent of them might be.

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

We have an idea based on the hydrogeology. The exact numbers are known only by Alberta Environment, because they commissioned extensive studies by private consulting companies. They are not public yet, but they have used those studies to establish a framework for groundwater management. However, we do know that given the geology and the hydrogeology of the region, those aquifers right above the McMurray formation are paleovalleys, buried channels, and have a very small capacity to keep groundwater in the reservoir as storage. We also know that their recharge is very small.

I'll just give you two numbers quickly. Imagine you have aquifers that contain approximately 15 million cubic metres of water. If the recharge in the area is in the order of one million to two million cubic metres of water per year, it will take approximately 10 years to refill them.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So the recharge area is very critical to replenishing the groundwater.

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

Yes.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

One of the issues raised by the Alberta Research Council was that there needed to be a more intensive look at the mining disturbance and the impact. Do you agree that also needs to be looked at?

[Dr. Alfonso Rivera]

Absolutely.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Has NRCan played a big role in the environmental impact assessments of the tar sands projects? Have you been called in to review the environmental impact assessments and the cumulative impact assessment?

[Dr. David Boerner]

Yes. They typically collect expert advice from a variety of federal government departments, and we have groundwater experts inside NRCan. Whenever there's an environmental assessment report that needs to be reviewed from a groundwater perspective, our experts are asked for that information.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So until you have the information that Dr. Rivera is indicating, it's hard to make a definitive finding.

[Dr. David Boerner]

Yes. That's one of the perennial challenges. This is very much a research program in some ways. We understand some types of aquifers very well and can tell you what's going to happen with them from studies of other ones. This buried valley kind of aquifer is a little different, and we don't understand it quite as well. You always have to go on the principle that as much as you know, you try to give the best advice you can about the things you have to consider. But it is very much a research project, and we don't really know enough to be definitive.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Is there a reason why this study has extended over three years? If you had all the resources this summer, could you complete the entire review of the Beaver Valley area?

[Dr. David Boerner]

Well, yes and no. That's an excellent question, but it's also a bit tough to answer.

As Dr. Rivera said, it takes maybe 10 years to recharge this aquifer system. We're interested in the dynamics, but it's very hard to get a handle on the dynamics from a one-year study. We can certainly accelerate some parts of it and we can collect lots of different types of data, but there still are uncertainties that we just can't deal with. We have to take a longer time to know how these things—

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So there is no baseline for this area now?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

The time has expired, so just make a very quick response, please.