Oil and gas industry group backs proposed merger of Alberta's largest river basins

A Canadian oil and gas industry group is backing a proposal to consolidate Alberta's two largest river basins, a move that would make it easier for industry to transfer water in that area without requiring legislative approval.

The proposal involves the Peace/Slave and Athabasca basins.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), which represents the country's oil and gas companies, says the change would eliminate the need for redundant water infrastructure and reduce environmental impact.

"Current restrictions under the Water Act create unnecessary inefficiencies for oil and gas projects that span major basin boundaries," reads a statement attributed to Richard Wong, vice president of regulatory and operations with CAPP.

Conservation groups, meanwhile, are more skeptical.

"This idea of combining what are our two largest river basins in Alberta, essentially, to avoid having to go through the process to complete an interbasin transfer, to me, is associated with a lot of undue risk," said Kennedy Halvorson, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA).

Currently, Alberta's Water Act prevents water from being transferred between the province's seven major river basins unless a special act of the Legislature is authorized.

But under a proposal outlined in an ongoing consultation around water availability in Alberta, the Peace/Slave and Athabasca basins would be combined.

In a statement, CAPP said the idea didn't originate with them, but their members support it as a practical solution.

"Consolidating the Peace/Slave and Athabasca river basins, which naturally converge within Alberta, would eliminate the need for redundant water infrastructure, allow companies to access the most suitable water sources based on availability and reduce environmental impact," Wong said.

For energy companies with holdings on both sides of a basin boundary, there's long been concern about the duplication of water infrastructure. Companies say they're forced to build extra water sites and storage in each area they're working in, which they say increases a company's overall environmental footprint.

CAPP said that using public data, one of its subject matter experts had counted 122 oil, natural gas and oilsands operators with land holdings on both sides, across 100-kilometres, on each side of the Peace/Slave-Athabasca basin boundary.

'Unintended consequences' raised as concern

In October 2024, the Alberta government launched an engagement it said was intended to increase water availability and improve the province's water management system. It held a series of open-ended town halls, open houses, online surveys and other forms of engagement.

Halvorson said in the first phase of the consultation, participants were asked for their thoughts on proposals involving "low-risk" interbasin transfers.

"Often, there's a lot of concern about interbasin transfers, because every sort of watershed has a different physical makeup, a different chemical makeup. It may have different species, different ecological networks," she said. "So, as soon as you start combining them you do risk having … unintended consequences on the receiving watershed."

Those consequences could include changes in pH levels, chemical concentrations, the introduction of invasive species, and reduced flow for downstream ecosystems and users, Halvorson said.

In May, the province released a series of proposed changes to the Water Act, which included the proposal involving the Peace/Slave and Athabasca river basins. In that document, the province notes such a proposal would be "similar to the Bow, Oldman, and Red Deer basins converging within Alberta as the South Saskatchewan River Basin."

Halvorson argued such a comparison neglected the significantly larger size of the Peace/Slave and Athabasca basins.

"They're so much larger. Collectively, they would cover 50 per cent of the province," she said.

Water management system seeing challenges

Ryan Fournier, press secretary for Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, noted that the Water Act has not been updated in 25 years.

He added that the engagement heard ideas from more than 1,000 Albertans on how to make the system work better.

"This spring, we sought feedback on some of the most commonly raised, or practical, changes that were proposed by Albertans, including consolidating the list of major river basins," Fournier wrote in a statement.

"We are now reviewing the feedback we received from Albertans. No decisions have been made about how to move forward but we will keep Albertans updated as we work to make every drop count."

Jason Unger, the executive director of the Environmental Law Centre, said he believes there are still too many unanswered questions about the environmental and community impacts of a possible merger, both around wastewater from industrial projects like oil and gas operations and other types of interbasin transfers. 

"While it appears a specific type of interbasin transfer is contemplated, once merged, all types of interbasin transfers are then legally permittable," he said.

He added that the proposal seems to be built on the assumption that water transfers between the basins are low-risk, and that therefore they can be treated as one basin.

"I think the government would be better placed to consider 'classes' of activities that may provide a net benefit to the environment and figure out amendments specific to those classes and consult on those," he said.

The Alberta government has said that population growth, economic growth and water variability are challenging the water management system in the province, and that new policy and tools could be used to respond to those challenges.