Open File Report 2013-10

Author(s) Date 2013-07-31

In 2008, Alberta Geological Survey (AGS), in collaboration with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD), began an inventory of groundwater resources within the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor (ECC). One of the products of this inventory is a series of maps showing fresh (maximum of 4000 mg/L total dissolved solids) regional groundwater chemistry of the major bedrock aquifers and overlying sediments aquifer within the ECC.

We assembled more than 20,000 chemical analyses of groundwater within the ECC available from ESRD, AGS, Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures, and the Energy Resources Conservation Board. Chemical analyses were culled using temporal, sampling interval, and geochemical criteria. We created high-quality datasets by assigning usable chemical analyses to the major aquifers in the ECC based on well location and sampling depth. The resulting datasets contain information on groundwater quality within the surficial sediments aquifer and the major bedrock aquifers including the Paskapoo, Horseshoe Canyon, Belly River, and Bearpaw. We used these datasets to produce hand-contoured maps showing concentration ranges of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulphate; total dissolved solids; total hardness as calcium carbonate; and total alkalinity as calcium carbonate within the entire thickness of the surficial sediments aquifer and the upper 50 metres of each major bedrock aquifer. Maps showing concentration ranges for the upper 50 to 100 metres of the Horseshoe Canyon aquifer were also produced. Insufficient data were available within the ECC to map regional groundwater chemistry in the Scollard aquifer.

This report presents concentration ranges of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and sulphate; total dissolved solids; total hardness as calcium carbonate; and total alkalinity as calcium carbonate in the upper 50 to 100 metres of the Horseshoe Canyon aquifer.

NTS Keywords

Barker, A.A., Moktan, H., Huff, G.F. and Stewart, S.A. (2013): Maps of fresh groundwater chemistry, Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, Alberta: IV - upper 50 to 100 metres of the Horseshoe Canyon aquifer; Alberta Energy Regulator, AER/AGS Open File Report 2013-10, 17 p.