Static Water Levels and Completion Details of Nested Piezometers in the Quaternary-Tertiary(?) Succession, Athabasca Oil Sands (In Situ) Area, Alberta

NOTE: In October 2011, AGS staff noted and corrected an error in the naming of the piezometers. Text referring to piezometer WEPA 00-1-158 was corrected to now refer to the correct piezometer WEPA 00-3-158.

In 2000, Alberta Geological Survey installed nine piezometers. The piezometers were completed within both Quaternary drift aquifers and a Quaternary-Tertiary buried channel aquifer. Water levels were measured within these piezometers. The results of these measurements indicate that, at all three sites, vertical hydraulic gradients are downwards.

At one of the sites (WEPA 00-1), the calculated vertical gradients between three of the nested piezometers are small. This may indicate that the three stratigraphically distinct aquifers monitored by these piezometers may be part of a larger, vertically connected aquifer system, even though they are separated by intervening till packages.