1. Overview of Surface Water Allocation in the NSR Watershed
NSWA FORUM
October 4, 2016

2. Major features:
Approaching 1.4 million people
20 counties, urban growth
2 hydro-electric reservoirs
3 coal fired power plants + gas
Large petrochemical sector
Large agriculture sector
Large forestry sector
Oil and gas exploration
12 water sub-basins
Extensive recreational demand

3. Water Licencing Terminology
Licences permit water diversion and use, stating:
Annual volume, rate, & timing (Allocation)
Estimates of consumptive use, losses and return flow
Source and diversion location
Purpose
Priority date
Allocation = Consumptive Use + Losses + Return Flow
Licenced Use = Consumptive Use + Losses
Return Flow = Allocation – Consumption - Losses

4. Original Study - Prepared by amec 2007 - Based on AEP data to 2005
- Surface water & groundwater,
licences and registrations
- Separate analysis for each sub-basin
- Projected future water actual use in
5 year increments to 2025

5. Original Study - 7 use categories: Municipal
Agricultural (livestock & irrigation)
Commercial
Petroleum (upstream, plants & refineries)
Industrial (power & chemical plants)
Other (water management, drainage, flood control, stabilization, wetlands)

6. Key Results Allocations total nearly 2 million dam3
About 27% of average annual NSR flow
Industry is allocated the most water by far, mainly for cooling

7. Key Results
Licenced use only 400,000 dam3 (20% of allocation), rest is returned to source
Industry has the largest licensed water use, but Petroleum and Municipal are also significant

8. Key Results
Actual use was only 200,000 dam3 in 2005 (10% of allocation, 50% of licenced use, 2.7% of average annual NSR flow)
Industry the largest actual user, but Petroleum and Other also large

9. Key Observations
Allocation, licenced use and actual use occurs primarily in 3 central sub-basins

10. 2015 Update - Some data entries appear to be incorrect
- Accessed AEP licence and water use reporting databases
- 37K entries, removed 11K groundwater, 9K expired/cancelled and 1K with 0 allocation
- Used the 400 largest licences,>99% of total allocations
- Results preliminary, what’s on paper may not match reality
- Some data entries appear to be incorrect

11. Sources of Surface Water
- 58% of water allocated is from the NSR mainstem
- 39% is from Wabamun Lake, the 2 largest licences in the NSR watershed

12. Allocations & Licenced Use
Cooling is still the largest allocation and licenced use
Plants licenced to use almost as much
- Municipal licenced use is much smaller

13. Cooling
- Wabamun Power Plant closed Rossdale Power Plant closed Clover Bar converted to peaking power Reduction in “active” allocations of 1,400,000 dam³ - Allocations still in use <200,000 dam³

14. Cooling - Two new licences for 12,000 dam³since 2005
- Further retirements of remaining coal-fired units
- New gas-fired plants needing less cooling water

15. Municipal
- ~170,000 dam3 allocation - Majority, ~150,000 dam3, Edmonton/Epcor - Virtually unchanged since Licenced use is small due to return of treated wastewater effluent to surface water system - Epcor provides water to a wide and growing region outside Edmonton

17. Petrochemical and Industrial Plants
- About 95,000 dam³ allocated in 2005, almost all in Capital Region
- Celanese Plant closed (8,000 dam3 allocation)
- Six new Upgraders expected, only one built
- Allocations have increased by ~40,000 to ~135,000 dam³

18. Remaining Uses
- Injection declined from ~36,000 to 28,000 dam3 - Irrigation uses increased from ~16,000 dam3 to ~19,000 dam3 - Stabilization unchanged ~12000 dam3 - Wetlands allocation increased by 500 to ~5000 dam3

19. Concluding Comments
- Substantial decrease in “active” water allocations since Are there other large “inactive” allocations - What will be done with “inactive” allocations - Need to verify licence database - Need to verify actual water use, expect decrease since Need to project future additional allocations and use