WorleyParsons Canada
February 8, 2013
Executive Summary
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and its member companies are committed to protecting fresh groundwater resources and support the recently released “Baseline Groundwater Monitoring Practice” for tight gas development. Under this practice, companies will participate with local governments in establishing, where appropriate, science-based regional groundwater monitoring programs. This phased program has been developed to inform CAPP members and to facilitate their interaction with federal and/or provincial governments with respect to developing regional groundwater monitoring programs. The purpose of this program is to provide information to develop a framework, in cooperation with provincial regulators, for the design and implementation of scientifically based regional groundwater monitoring networks in areas of current and future tight gas and oil development. In support of these objectives a review of existing regional groundwater monitoring networks was completed. From this review, key themes, best practices and relevant sources of existing data that can be used to inform the design, implementation, and operation of energy industry specific regional monitoring networks were identified. This report presents a review of a selection of groundwater monitoring networks that were specifically designed for, or have been adapted to monitor the energy industry. A few generic and more broadly based monitoring networks were included in the review to provide context to some of the key themes and best practices discussed in the report. Based on the review of monitoring networks, it is important to have a clear definition of monitoring objectives. As noted in some of the examples these objectives should be expected to evolve over time as industry and hydrogeologic understanding matures.
To support these objectives the network should be:
• hydrogeologically and technically sound, backed by a scientifically based design methodology;
• structured so monitoring is completed at a frequency and with analysis of appropriate parameters, to meet the network objectives (e.g. sentinel observations for water quality changes);
• supported by stakeholders: landowners are especially important for access to well; and
• transparent in the data collection and analysis.
The goal should be the design, implementation and operation of a credible network. The second part of this work focused on mapping existing information to inform CAPP member companies of the data available on which to base future discussion of monitoring network design. The scope for the development of the GIS included identifying and integrating data from existing databases and maps into a single product that would add value for PTAC uses. Information and data that were gathered and integrated within the GIS included: locations of known tight gas plays, watershed boundaries, fresh water aquifers, provincial and municipal groundwater monitoring wells, existing or suspended non-saline source wells or monitoring wells used for oil and gas development, domestic wells, and existing oil and gas wells.
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