A brown winter could spell disaster for southern Alberta’s irrigated region.
“If we don’t get some serious moisture we could have a drought in the irrigated areas next year,” said Stan Klassen, head of the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association.
This past growing season saw water rationing and shorter supplies for all users who draw water from the Oldman River and its tributaries.
The water allocation was cut to 10 inches (255 millimetres) from the normal 18 inches (460 mm) in nine irrigation districts, the Blood tribe irrigation project and small urban centres like Taber and Bow Island, affecting about 600,000 acres.
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That meant swapping water rights and moving water to higher value crops like potatoes. Some farmers negotiated private deals for undisclosed prices to buy water.
Klassen said the districts did not set water prices, but asked farmers to let them know about such deals to ensure water could be delivered to the new locations.
These kinds of negotiations are more common in Australia and the United States.
“It’s a relatively new experience for us,” said Klassen.
Farmers and communities using water from the Bow River basin had ample supplies this summer.
However, the situation may change.
“They got their full allocation, but unless there is snow, they could have an allocation problem next year.”
Rivers and irrigation systems are fed by snow from the Rocky Mountains. With a well below average snowpack last winter and the same scenario anticipated this year, water supplies could be far below normal.
Alberta Environment recently announced canals are continuing to flow to fill storage reservoirs as much as possible in anticipation of next year’s water needs.
It may not be enough for some reservoirs.
The St. Mary’s Irrigation District in the far south normally stores 200,000 acre feet. This fall, the reservoir has 30,000 acre feet of water. An acre foot is the amount required to cover an acre with one foot of water.
Overall, reservoirs fed by the Oldman River system have 10 percent of their normal amount.
“We need more storage. We have peak flow periods and the more we can capture, the more we can put it to work,” said Klassen.
