Farmers in the Lake Diefenbaker area want to splash water in the face of the Saskatchewan government. They say the province needs to wake up and continue working on an economic development dream it started 35 years ago.
Six rural municipalities in the area have formed a steering committee to kick start irrigation projects on the largely untapped west side of the giant water reservoir.
“We’re trying to get this infrastructure going so more farmers can irrigate,” said Don Munro, a councillor with the RM of Fertile Valley.
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He estimates 112,000 acres of farmland on the west side of the lake could be irrigated if a series of canals and reservoirs were built and upgraded.
That would add substantially to the 100,000 acres now under the pivot, primarily on the east side of the lake.
“We want to expand way more than what they’ve got,” said Munro.
John Linsley, manager of irrigation development with Saskatchewan Agriculture, agrees there is huge potential in the area.
The Lake Diefenbaker reservoir was first used to irrigate farmland in 1968. Created by construction of the Gardiner Dam, it now holds 7.5 million acre feet of water. Developers originally thought the reservoir would be used to irrigate 300,000 acres of farmland.
That hasn’t transpired.
“In 1973 the west side development was shut down. Now a group from the Conquest and Swanson area have come forward with interest in revisiting those plans again,” said Linsley.
The municipalities formed a steering committee earlier this year. The water development idea was prompted by two years of drought and the promotion surrounding the ethanol and intensive livestock industries, which require large amounts of water.
Munro said they plan to learn from the experiences of people like Roger Pederson who live on the east side of the lake where there is more irrigation development.
Pederson, director of Saskatchewan Irrigator Projects Association, spoke about some of the impediments to irrigation at a recent conference on water and economic development put on by Saskatchewan Agrivision Corp. Inc.
He said two of the biggest obstacles in the province are SaskPower and the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation.
Pederson said SaskPower’s fees to bring in a power line needed to operate a quarter section pivot are exorbitant. The government agency recovers its construction costs in two years, while a farmer may take 15 to 25 years to pay off the cost of a new pivot system, he said.
“This is just not acceptable when we’re trying to promote development in this province,” he told conference goers.
The problem with crop insurance is that officials refuse to believe that irrigated land can generate crop yields like 70 bushels per acre for hard red spring wheat, said Pederson.
“The coverage levels for an irrigated crop are quite frankly a joke.”
Pederson’s critique of the provincial government didn’t stop there.
He said the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre is grossly underfunded, there is too much red tape involved in getting projects approved and there is an overall lack of an irrigation policy in the province.
“It’s pretty hard to plan for the future in a vacuum,” he said.
Pederson’s comments were echoed by other presenters who felt Saskatchewan should be doing more with Lake Diefenbaker.
Jim Webber, general manager of one of Alberta’s irrigation districts, said the days of creating big reservoirs are gone. Environmentalists won’t allow construction of dams of that scale anymore.
“You have this beautiful, huge reservoir sitting there,” said Webber.
“The hard part is done.”
Linsley agreed there is a vast untapped potential surrounding Lake Diefenbaker, but he had some words of caution for groups like the six rural municipalities that recently banded together.
“Irrigation is not something you can fire up in response to drought and then forget about.”
He said there needs to be a well-thought-out, long-term approach to developing the west side of Lake Diefenbaker.
The Lucky Lake and Riverhurst irrigation projects that were developed in the 1980s and 1990s took 10 years to get from idea to implementation, said Linsley.
Munro has different expectations.
“I’m hoping we can get water into Conquest in five years. That’s our goal.”
His rural municipality got involved in the project at the request of ratepayers who wanted more “clout” behind their proposal to bring irrigation to farms on the west side of the South Saskatchewan River.
But it’s early in the game and there are more questions than answers at this stage. Munro has no idea how much the proposal would cost.”We’re not even sure yet who we have to approach to get funding to get this infrastructure,” he said.
