Alberta urged to halt oilpatch water use
By Hanneke Brooymans,
Canwest News Service
February 9, 2009
A water-scarce future means Alberta should switch from coal-fired power to renewable energy, dismiss the idea of nuclear power, and dramatically reduce the oilpatch's water use by 2020, says a new Pembina Institute report.
One-third of all water allocated in the province in 2007 was for energy production, says the report, being released today.
In the meantime, summer river flows are declining, periods of prolonged drought experienced in the past are likely to return, and climate change is further increasing the uncertainty about future water supplies.
"We need to plan ahead and consider the impact that climate change is likely to have on fresh water resources in the future," said Mary Griffiths, whoco-wrote Heating Up in Alberta: Climate Change, Energy Development and Water. "The extraction of bitumen from the oilsands and the generation of electricity by coal-fired power plants use a lot of water."
Griffiths said nuclear power plants use more water than any other form of electricity generation and so shouldn't be considered in Alberta.
Coal-fired power plants also use a tremendous amount of water for cooling. Within the North Saskatchewan River basin, water for cooling accounts for almost 80 per cent of total water allocations, said Griffiths, who is a senior policy analyst with the environmental think-tank.
Water can be saved by switching away from this energy source to renewable energy sources, such as wind, runoff-river hydro and, potentially, geothermal energy, she said.
Alberta Energy spokesman Jason Chance said the province's energy strategy sets the tone for the future development of energy resources in the province for the next several decades and it's sensitive to the water issue.
Know-It-All
"The issues of climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing water use by the energy industry--these are all key focuses and things that have been addressed to date and where more work is needed."
Chance said water use by the nuclear industry is something that needs to be considered, as is the issue of greenhouse gases.
"There are clearly challenges and benefits of nuclear and that's why we've taken the approach we have that we'll first of all have a comprehensive fact-based report put together and then have a discussion with Albertans about all of the issues before deciding the province's position on the topic of nuclear."
The report also says by 2007, oilsands mining operations had been issued licences for approximately 550 billion litres of water per year, a volume equivalent to that required annually by a city of more than three million people.
But Greg Stringham of the CanadianAssociation of Petroleum Producers, said oilsands companies don't use all the water they're allocated.
And newer projects accessing the deeper oilsands deposits are using exclusively saline, or undrinkable, water, said Stringham, the association's vice-president of markets and fiscal policy.
This saline water can also be used to squeeze oil out of older, congested oil wells, but the Pembina report notes that in 2007 about 20 billion litres of fresh water (surface water and groundwater) was used. This is water that is taken out of the hydrologic cycle.
Stringham said the industry is entering a new phase altogether and is shifting to using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. "The overall use of water by the conventional oil and gas industry has gone down significantly over the last decade."
Still, Griffiths said government and industry should consider the implications of how climate change could affect water supplies when they plan long-term projects, especially those likely to be operating for 40 years or more.
"If we take measures to con-serve water now, we'll be better prepared to meet the droughts and the water shortages we can expect as a result of climate change."
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