But that's a presumption. In theory, that's the way groundwater works.
I don't know if you had a chance to look at the testimony of the NRCan officials who appeared before us. As you testified, now, after 40 years of working the tar sands, the Alberta government and the federal government are starting to do some studies on what the situation is for groundwater and the interface. As I recall, they had three key issues they were exploring.
One is the sustained safe yield for groundwater in that whole northern Alberta region. The other is the transfer mechanism between aquifers, and they say they have no idea--including between Alberta and Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan. The third issue is scale of time. They don't really know yet how fast it moves or what's under there. The surface-to-groundwater connection is not known, particularly the issue about the importance of the groundwater in recharging the river.
I'm presuming by your testimony that as scientists you think it's very important that we expedite that work, which would help your research.