The Oil business uses fresh water when either drilling or producing oil.

Historically drilling operations trucked the fresh water from springs or creeks near the drilling rig to mix with drilling fluids. Over the past few years, drilling companies have found that it is cheaper to have a fresh water well drilled at the oil drilling location.

These fresh water wells are usually located in shallow aquifers. It has been BAC’s experience that a lot of the fresh water wells drilled are not licensed. Further, the wells are not abandoned to the standards required by the Alberta Government Provincial Water Act and Regulations. When the drilling rig may only be on location for a week or two, it has been difficult to determine whether the water wells are completed and abandoned correctly . The problem arises because the licensing department of the Government do not receive the license applications and there are insufficient inspectors in the Province. The abandonment of the fresh water wells is critical to ensure intermingling of the fresh water aquifers does not occur. If the drilling rig “looses” circulation within several hundred feet of the land surface, intermingling of the drilling fluids and potable water could occur.

The Oil business use for fresh water doesn’t stop with drilling operations. During the production phase of the oil, often fresh water is used to displace the oil from the oil bearing rock or sand. The fresh water, produced from shallow aquifers in the vicinity of the oil production area, is pumped down a well drilled into the oil bearing rock or sand. This water in turn causes the oil to flow to wells where it can be pumped to the surface. This type of operation is typically called a Water Flood. A typical oil field will require more and more water during the production life of the field. For that reason, a number of companies have either increased their water injection rates on existing wells where the license allowed, applied for increases in existing well license volumes or applied for licenses for more wells.

The Oil pumps [commonly called pumpjacks] are located throughout Alberta.

Typically the oil is pumped to the surface to some type of separation system where the oil is separated from the water. The water may be of two types: produced water that is saline and water that was used for the water flood. Both types of water are usually re-injected back into the oil bearing formation although there are cases where the water is trucked to another location for disposal.


BAC is concerned about the use of the surface water or ground water for water floods. Water Flood systems in Alberta consume 39,792,361 cubic meters of water per year. This amount of water would provide a population of 240,000 people with water assuming a consumption rate per person of 100 gallons of water per day. Further, water flood systems consume 24.75% of all water used in the province.

The water used in a Water Flood system is lost from the water cycle forever.