Produced Water
What Is Produced Water, and Why Can't It Just Be Released?
Where the water comes up from, what is dissolved in it, and the specific reasons it cannot be put on the ground or into a creek.
Independent reference ยท Southern Alberta
Oilfield Water Disposal, Explained in Plain Language
Every barrel of oil produced in Alberta brings up several barrels of water with it. This site explains where that water goes: how disposal and injection wells work, how they are classified and regulated, what happens to waste oil and solids, and what the AER actually requires.
Start here
Start with these four guides
What produced water is, where it goes, how disposal wells are classified, and what Alberta requires of the operators who handle it.
Disposal Wells
Disposal Well Classes in Alberta, and Why They Matter at the Gate
What the well classes mean, what each may legally receive, and why the class printed on a facility's approval decides whether your load gets taken.
Disposal Wells
The Alberta Regulatory Framework for Oilfield Water Disposal
Which directives apply to what, how the paperwork chain works from manifest to injection record, and where operators most often come unstuck.
Oilfield Waste
Choosing a Disposal Facility: What to Verify Before the First Load
Approval class, what they will actually accept, turnaround, how rejections are handled, and the documentation you should expect back with every load.
Explore
Browse by subject
Produced Water
What produced water is, how much of it a well makes, what is dissolved in it, what it costs to handle, and which treatment methods are actually used.
Disposal Wells
How oilfield disposal and injection wells work, how Alberta classifies them, and the difference between disposal and enhanced recovery injection.
Oilfield Waste
Waste oil and filter collection, oilfield solids and slurry handling, tank storage, secondary containment, and how to choose a receiving facility.
Our approach
What this site is, and what it is not
This is a reference publication. We do not operate disposal facilities, we do not accept or haul waste, and we are not affiliated with any disposal company, past or present, including any business that has previously used this domain name. If you have arrived here looking to book a load or arrange service, we cannot help with that, and you should contact a licensed operator directly.
What we do is explain the subject properly. Most writing about oilfield water disposal falls into one of two categories: marketing copy that avoids specifics, or regulatory documents written for people who already understand the framework. Neither is much use to a field operator trying to work out why a load was rejected, or a landowner trying to understand what the well on their quarter section actually does.
So we write the middle version: technically accurate, sourced to the regulations where a requirement is being stated, and written so that somebody without a petroleum engineering background can follow it. Where a rule has changed, we say when. Where practice varies between operators, we say that too rather than presenting one approach as the standard.
Why readers trust us
How to use this reference
1
Sourced to the regulations
Where we state a requirement, we name the directive or regulation it comes from. Our sourcing policy.
2
Written for the field
Plain language, with the technical terms defined the first time they appear rather than assumed.
3
Dated and reviewed
Regulations change. Every guide carries a last-reviewed date so you know how current it is.
4
Verify before you act
We are a reference, not a compliance service. Always confirm with the AER or a qualified professional.
The people behind Taber Water Disposal
Meet our authors
Dale Whitcombe
Dale spent eighteen years working production and water handling on leases across southern Alberta before moving into writing full time. He covers day-to-day field practice: what happens at a facility gate, why loads get rejected, and how operators actually run water systems rather than how a manual says they should.
Priya Raman
Priya researches and writes the regulatory side of this reference, tracking AER directives and provincial waste rules and translating them into something a field operator can act on. She edits and sources every guide before it is published.
Not sure what a Class II well actually is?
Alberta classifies disposal wells by what they may receive and where they may inject. The difference decides which loads a facility can legally accept.