As the largest water licence holders in Alberta, irrigation districts have tremendous control over a limited resource.
For the Eastern Irrigation District (EID) and Western Irrigation District (WID) east of Calgary, water management is serious business and their farmer-run boards know others are looking at them as a new source of water.
Their idea is to improve irrigation efficiency and use the saved water for urban development.
“We see irrigation having to get more efficient and use a portion of that saved water for the economic and population growth of southern Alberta,” said Earl Wilson, manager of the EID in Brooks.
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Alberta law allows a water market, but those who have attempted to use the system find it cumbersome and rife with potential conflicts.
“If they really want the water market to step up and fill the gap and help the crunch period through this period of growth, it has to be a damned sight easier than it is now,” said WID manager Jim Webber.
The districts’ first responsibility is to deliver clean water to farms, but the WID is under pressure to develop services for the urban public. Webber suggested up to 80 percent of the bills to convey water will have to be paid by urban interests.
“The farmers can’t pay for all of this. The fees will have to go to the urban side,” he said, which could slow developers’ plans.
“In this game of land development, speculation is rampant,” Webber said.
“People are buying land at inflated prices way ahead of the curve, then they come up to the reality. They have all these beautifully designed complexes but no water.”
Water quality is a major concern for irrigators. Every new urban development has storm water runoff that drains into canals and ultimately reservoirs, causing nutrient buildup and unwanted aquatic weed growth.
Webber said the province, as the owner of the water, does not provide enough guidance to manage water demands from unchecked urban growth.
“At a time when the most important water decisions are to be made, it is at a time when Alberta Environment is at its weakest.”
The department is restricted by a small staff and limited budget.
Webber said there must be a regional growth plan to decide where people can live and where their water might come from.
“Irrigation districts can probably support the next 30 years of growth. We can probably find the water for that if we are given flexibility and we get the funding to get the conservation measures in,” he said.
The EID delivers water to 300,000 acres of crop and pasture land from two licences to withdraw 760,000 acre feet per year, the largest licence on the Bow River.
That is equal to about 30 percent of the average annual flow of the Bow River.
Recently the district applied to amend its licence to release 20,000 acre feet to be shared with the City of Brooks for a subdivision or new industry. The government has put that proposal on hold.
Over the years the district has implemented conservation programs that saved up to 40 percent of its water requirements. It is willing to deal with new users but conserving and moving water is expensive.
“If it takes a million dollar investment on our part to save some water, somebody else is going to help pay for some of those investments to save that water and they’ll get use of that water,” Wilson said.
