Despite the dry spring there are fewer Alberta farmers using the province’s water pumping equipment, says a water specialist.
At this time last year, 80 farmers had rented the province’s water pumping equipment compared to 59 this year, said Murray Tenove, Alberta Agriculture water quality engineer.
In previous years, pumps were rented in areas of the province that had localized water shortages, he said. In the past two years, pumping equipment rentals have been scattered across the province and not concentrated in a single area.
For the last two years, water has been pumped in about 900 projects in the province.
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The 10-year average for water pumping projects is 400 to 500 projects a year, he said.
“It’s very important for people that need it, but only certain people have water within suitable distances to pump from.”
Last fall the province boosted the number of pumping units by one-third, anticipating a high demand. There are about 100 units available across the province.
A unit consists of a trailer, 1.6 kilometres of six-inch pipe and a power take-off driven water pump.
Typical projects pump water from less than two km away. The record was a 29 km community project with several farmers involved.
Tenove said the pumps are generally rented early in the spring before seeding and after harvest in the fall.
Earlier this year, the Alberta government announced it would halve the cost of renting water pumps to help farmers affected by dry weather and low soil moisture.
