Electric Conductivity Survey of the Muskeg River

The Muskeg River is located in the Athabasca Oil Sands region of northern Alberta within the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo. It drains a muskeg rich boreal watershed underlain by mineable oil sands deposits and has been subject to development since the early 2000s. The recent (2025) State of Environment Report (available from here: https://www.alberta.ca/state-of-the-environment-for-water-quality-and-quantity) documented increased sulphate and ion concentrations; however, the scale and locations of such increases in concentrations along the flow path remains unclear. It is also uncertain if these trends arise from natural groundwater discharge, diffuse watershed inputs, or discrete point sources. Therefore, the objective of the study is to conduct the electric conductivity survey in the Muskeg River to identify locations, where electric conductivity anomalies may persist or recur along the river. It is expected to distinguish reach-scale diffuse inputs from point-focused anomalies and help quantify relative role of different stressors along the river reach. This is expected to improve the knowledge of the relative contribution of these sources and help support adaptive monitoring and inform cumulative effects assessments within the Muskeg River watershed. The project will specifically map reach-scale conductivity anomalies on about 100 km river reach in the Muskeg River, with data collection along both riverbanks, resulting in about 200 km in coverage. The mapping will identify zones of groundwater or porewater influence – areas where increases in parameters, such as sulphate and other ions may be more likely to originate or be detected. This will enable tracking of their spatial extent, distinguishing between diffuse versus point sources, and thus strengthening interpretation of fixed-station based monitoring results. The resulting maps will be used to inform monitoring program designs and link changes in surface water to groundwater plumes coming from potential contaminant sources. Hence, the results of the survey will also be used to identify areas for surface water/groundwater sampling under the Oil Sands Monitoring Program and advance water quality investigations.