Sectoral Allocations - Beaver River Basin
The first chart shows the Sectoral Water Allocations Sub-Index (allocations measured against supply) for the Beaver River basin. To be able to see the allocations in detail, a second chart (underneath) shows the data using a smaller scale.
The largest sector use of water in the Beaver River basin is for oil and gas, representing about 34.5% of total allocations in 2006. The majority of this amount (nearly 98%) is for enhanced oil recovery or injection - primarily for thermal recovery of oil sands. The next largest uses are for other use-water management (31.5%), municipal water supply (18%), commercial (11.5%) and agriculture (3.5%). Growth in allocations has been fairly consistent since the 1970's. In 2006, more than 10.5% of the natural supply, as measured by the average natural flow of the Beaver River, was allocated for use.
Note that allocations are not a direct measure of actual use, rather they represent the maximum amount of water that can be used under the terms of licenses that have been issued, when and if sufficient water is available in the quantities licensed in a given year.
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