Pressure on the Bow River to provide for the more than one million
people living in its basin of southern Alberta has raised crucial
issues of water supply, quality and allocation.
And the Bow River, which starts in the Rocky Mountains, flows through
Calgary and converges with the Oldman River, is just one example of the
increasing pressure faced by southern Alberta’s water courses.
“When more than 1.1 million people live in the basin, it is bound to
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have an effect,” said Mark Bennett of the Bow River Basin Council.
Most of Alberta’s water is generated in the Peace River system and
flows north to the Slave River. Southern Alberta, on the other hand,
has a swelling population but the least amount of water.
The South Saskatchewan River Basin Group and the Alberta environment
department are reviewing how water is allocated, to try and alleviate
problems caused when a system is strained to the limit.
The province wants a water strategy for short- and long-term needs.
Public hearings are scheduled across the province throughout this month.
“We can’t take a year to study what we need to do next week,” Dave
Hill, an engineer who works on water policy with the province’s Eastern
Irrigation District, told an agrologists meeting.
“There is a lot of water management expertise in southern Alberta. We
have to put it to work.”
In southern Alberta, rivers provide a large proportion of the water
because there are no sizable natural lakes.
Most of the province’s dams and irrigation projects are south of
Calgary, where water is diverted from rivers into storage reservoirs.
Nearly 1.5 million acres are irrigated.
“Three rivers support over 600,000 acres of irrigation in southern
Alberta,” said Wally Chin of Alberta Agriculture’s irrigation branch.
“There is huge demand on those rivers and huge consequences.”
Farmers, communities and other users such as food processors,
recreational users and the oil and gas industry all use irrigation
water.
If an expected water shortage materializes later this year, it promises
to put the province’s new water and irrigation acts to the test.
The acts allow more flexibility in moving water to where it is needed
most, while ensuring users receive their share during dry periods.
Supply has been below average for the last two years, and that prompted
irrigation districts to meet in November 2000 to discuss ways to share
water. They agreed on a formula basis rather than close some systems.
“In times of shortage we are learning a lot and gaining experience,”
Chin said.
The region usually demands about one million acre-feet of water, but
there was only about half that amount available last year. An acre foot
is the amount of water required to cover an acre of land one foot deep.
A new formula is being developed for this year because supplies are
half of what was available last year.
Significant rationing is likely, Chin said.
The St. Mary’s, Chin, Milk River Ridge, 40 Mile Coulee and Waterton
reservoirs are essentially empty. The Oldman reservoir is much below
normal. These reservoirs are highly dependent on snow pack and spring
runoff.
Some snowpacks farther north are at average or above average levels,
the Red Deer River headwaters are at average levels, and Kananaskis and
Sunshine are above average.
