Groundwater Exploration In Prairie Environments

Groundwater exploration and development is becoming increasingly important in western<br>Canada as the demand and competition for water increases. Oil and gas companies,<br>farmers and small municipalities all require large quantities of water, although for widely<br>varying uses. Oil and gas companies are required to replace oil and gas with water to<br>maintain reservoir pressures. Water quantity is the primary objective for re-injection<br>purposes. Municipal and agricultural users require potable water. The aquifers of central<br>and southern Saskatchewan and much of Alberta consist of buried Quaternary valleys<br>consisting of sands and gravels beds, inscribed into relatively shallow marine derived<br>bedrock. These valleys contain the majority of exploitable water in the upper 200 m.<br>The valleys are usually 200 to 400 m wide and 60 to 100 m deep. These valleys are often<br>unidentifiable by current topographic examination, air photo analysis, or satellite<br>imagery.<br>Komex International has completed a number of projects in which electrical resistivity<br>tomography (ERT) was used to locate potential groundwater bearing zones by identifying<br>these buried valleys, and by identifying coarser grained deposits within these valleys. A<br>significant electrical contrast exists between the marine bedrock sediments and<br>Quaternary derived siliclastic fluvial deposits. Subsequent drilling and testing have<br>proven that ERT is a very suitable method to conduct large scale groundwater exploration<br>programs for petroleum, municipal and agricultural users.