MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – Most Alberta residents have a penchant for the
warmer climate, bigger cities and industry found in the southern half
of the province.
Unfortunately, 60 percent of the province’s water supply exists in the
northern portion, where only 20 percent of the people and industry are
found.
Agriculture, industry and government players have been wrestling with
the problem of how to affordably move water from the plentiful north to
the needy south for years.
Read Also
Feeder market adds New World screwworm risk premium
Feedlots contemplate the probability of Canadian border closing to U.S. feeder cattle if parasite found in United States
At a recent meeting of the Canadian Water Resources Association in
Medicine Hat, Len Ring of Alberta’s irrigation branch doused one idea
being bandied about.
“There is not going to be a canal running from Grande Prairie to
Lethbridge,” he said.
The Peace River region in Alberta’s north has a much lower elevation
than the south, so moving water from the Peace region would require
pumps, he said. That means considerable power and infrastructure
construction costs.
Projects that divert water from one river to the next to send it to the
thirsty south in a checkerboard fashion are more likely, said Ring.
Albertans have a legal right to move water from one location to the
next through provincial licensing agreements.
Some agreements also exist to move water across provincial or
international borders.
The province sends 150,000 acre feet per year via the St. Mary River
system to Montana. The agreement was signed nearly 100 years ago. An
acre foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land one
foot deep.
As well, each year Alberta must send 50 percent of the water that
passes through it to Saskatchewan. Alberta actually allows through an
average of 68 percent each year.
In total, about 13 million acre feet leave Alberta for Saskatchewan
through river systems.
Another 93 million acre feet leave the northern portion of the province
for the Northwest Territories.
Alberta could hold back more if it had adequate reservoirs.
The Meridian Dam proposal could have stored about one million acre feet
in a reservoir north of Medicine Hat. However, the proposal was dropped
after a private consultant firm hired by Saskatchewan and Alberta
showed project costs for infrastructure and environmental mitigation
were unreasonably high.
“There is no easy solution, yet the pressures for water continue,” said
Rod MacLean, a planner with UMA Engineering, a company that works with
irrigation districts to plan infrastructure needs.
So the Alberta government is now looking for new sources of water and
new reservoirs. Relying on ground water would not work because there is
not enough available, said MacLean.
He said smaller reservoirs in coulees within existing irrigation
districts are a possibility.
Sixteen potential storage areas have been pointed out between Waterton
and Taber that could be used. Another option could be to raise the Chin
Reservoir by five metres.
