DATE ISSUED: Feb. 5, 2026
EFFECTIVE DATE: April 1, 2026

Effective April 1, 2026, holders of BCER-issued Water Sustainability Act Section 9 (WSA S9) licences must submit water withdrawal data through the BCER’s online eSubmission portal rather than by email. The portal supports both manual data entry and file uploads using a comma-separated values (CSV) template.

This is a procedural change only - reporting requirements and submission deadlines remain unchanged. Licence holders must continue to submit accurate, non-averaged daily water-withdrawal data for each approved withdrawal location on a quarterly basis.

This change aligns WSA S9 reporting more closely with WSA Section 10 volume submissions and streamlines the submission process, increasing efficiency and reducing the potential for data entry errors.

Licence holders can administer relevant portal access within their own organizations. Users submitting water-use data in eSubmission must have the “Water Representative” security role. Users who do not currently have this role must contact their company administrator to have it assigned in KERMIT. Access to eSubmission requires licence holders to be registered in the BCER’s Corporate Registry. For guidance on account creation, please refer to the Permit Operations and Administration Manual. For guidance on security roles, please refer to the Online Systems Accounts page.

The BCER’s Water Licence Application Manual has been updated to incorporate the changes described in this release. Our eSubmission User Guide has also been updated and provides detailed instructions for the new submission process.

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The BCER publishes quarterly water use summary statistics on the Reports page. For more information about our water management program, visit our Water Management page or view the Water Use in Oil & Gas Activities video.

If you have any questions regarding this Technical Update, please contact:

Ryan Rolick, M.Sc., P.Geo.
Hydrologist
BC Energy Regulator
Ryan.Rolick@bc-er.ca
250-794-5213