Abstracts

319 - Baseline Water Well Testing in Oil and Gas Development
Areas of Alberta
Steve Wallace
Alberta Environment and Parks, Government of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
The Standard for Baseline Water Well Testing (BWWT) for Coalbed Methane Operations
was implemented in 2006 in response to concerns amongst Albertans about the
potential for CBM activities to adversely affect water well supplies. The baseline water
well testing requires operators to test all active water wells within the vicinity of a proposed
CBM well to be completed above the Base of Groundwater Protection. The testing includes
a well capacity test, water quality sampling and testing for dissolved gases. The latter
includes stable carbon isotopic analyses on hydrocarbon gas components. Over 15,000
baseline water well tests have been completed to date. An overview of the BWWT program
and the results gathered is provided.
Expansion of the BWWT program to unconventional oil and gas development areas, including
shale gas and tight oil, is currently being considered. Alberta Environment and
Parks is working closely with the Alberta Energy Regulator on potential revision/expansion
of the BWWT program, using knowledge gained through the CBM experience and
taking into consideration modifications to reflect the unique aspects of unconventional oil
and gas development.
Advanced Techniques for Site
Characterization
Thursday October 29, 10:10 – 11:50
Chair: Walter Illman
Room: Heritage
136 - Definition of granular aquifer heterogeneity for large sites
René Lefebvre 1 , Erwan Gloaguen 1 , Daniel Paradis 2 , Laurie Tremblay 1 , Patrick
Brunet 1 , John Molson 3 , & Gabriel Fabien-Ouellet 1
1
INRS, Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Québec City, Québec, Canada
2
Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Québec City, Québec, Canada
3
Laval University, Geology and Geological Engineering Department, Québec City, Québec,
Canada
Contaminated site management requires the predictive capabilities of hydrogeological numerical
models. Such models have to encompass source zones and receptors over several
square kilometers. To be representative, these models have to represent the heterogeneous
distribution of hydraulic conductivity (K). Hydrogeophysics has generally been used to image
relatively restricted areas of the subsurface (small fractions of km 2 ), but there remains a
need for approaches defining heterogeneity at larger scales. This communication describes
a workflow defining aquifer heterogeneity that was applied over a 12 km 2 sub-watershed
98 IAH-CNC 2015 WATERLOO CONFERENCE