STRATHMORE, Alta. – The fate of a $1 billion development next to a tiny Alberta community rests with 400 irrigation farmers.
Farmers in the Western Irrigation District east of Calgary control a 160,400 acre feet water licence eyed by the Municipal District of Rocky View that surrounds Calgary on three sides. The municipality has offered $15 million to transfer 2,000 acre feet of water to support a large mall, casino, racetrack and other businesses east of the hamlet of Balzac, north of Calgary.
A decision on the transfer will be made by plebiscite probably in early August, said irrigation district manager Jim Webber at a meeting in Strathmore June 21.
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The Balzac development has been under a cloud of controversy for more than a year. When the municipality gave developers the green light, it assumed a guaranteed supply of water was coming from the Bow River, Red Deer River or the Rocky View water co-op, said MD of Rocky View reeve Al Schule.
“We understood we had the water in place,” he said.
However, last summer the provincial government capped all further allocations from the Bow and left the application in limbo with Alberta Environment. Other water arrangements fell through.
Schule blames political interference for what should have been a routine development approval complete with a water licence.
Eventually the province may have to step in and take a larger role in water management for the public good because no growth can occur without a consistent water supply, he said.
A proposal for a large housing project on the west side of Balzac has not proceeded because of the uncertainty.
“We are telling people without water and sewer, there isn’t going to be a development,” Schule said.
The $15 million offer is tantalizing for the farmers in the WID. It could be used to upgrade a 100-year-old canal and water delivery system, but many worry they are selling an irreplaceable asset too cheap.
Under Alberta law, water sales and transfers are allowed but many of the 120 people at the meeting said it would be a greater benefit to offer a lease and receive steady income for the cash-strapped district.
They noted that as southern Alberta’s population continues to swell, water will be more valuable than oil.
And, farmers still hurting from the drought of 2000-02 do not want to create shortages if water is diverted elsewhere.
Barry Clayton of Chestermere said the district should operate like a regional water utility to create wealth for the area as it finds a way to transfer its excess water to others.
“In the long term as a district we have to realize while we may have a senior licence for water out of the Bow River, that does not guarantee that we will continue to hold that,” he said.
“The public through the government will determine whether or not we continue to hold that.”
Clayton said the province has not handled water allocations and conservation programs well in the past. Alberta is in the process of writing a land use policy but that may be too late to address development pressures, he said.
A queue is forming to get access to water, said Greg Appleyard of Strathmore, who is building an ethanol plant near his business, Cattleland Feedyards.
“There are other people immediately wanting water,” he said.
Appleyard is unable to obtain his own withdrawal licence because the river is fully allocated, so approaching the irrigation district is his next choice. The final alternative is taking the proposal elsewhere.
The irrigation district’s prime function is to provide water to 95,000 acres of irrigated land, but numerous communities throughout the district also depend on the water stored in Lake Chestermere, the district’s major reservoir.
The system is strained to the limit and the district has never had enough cash to keep up with maintenance and rehabilitation.
The gravity based system uses earthen canals that follow the contours of the land but over time the channels have filled with silt and weeds. Some farmers say they cannot get their full allocation because the canals are so clogged with debris that the resource is wasted.
The Alberta government will pay 75 percent of repair costs to an irrigation district’s 25 percent. Even with that deal, the WID struggles to find the money. It needs about $2.5 million per year and up until 2000, the district was $3 million in the hole, said Webber.
Erwin Braun, WID manager of operations and maintenance, estimates the district has a $120 million liability in deteriorated infrastructure.
“Prioritizing the district with a revenue stream of about $2 million a year, you’re looking at 100 years to completely rehabilitate it,” said Braun.
If the Balzac deal is approved, the cash injection could advance the district’s rehabilitation plans by seven years.
The first rehabilitation would start in a region called south Cluny. Old canals would be filled in and replaced with 48 inch PVC pipe 11/2 metres underground. This would shorten 50 kilometres of canals to 35 km of pipeline.
Such a system would conserve more than 6,300 acre feet of water lost to seepage, evaporation and weed growth. The spare water could be diverted to Balzac. The transfer would involve less than one percent of the district’s allocation, said Braun.
There are 13 irrigation districts in Alberta but few face the same urban development pressures as the WID, said Webber.
“I would say 70 percent of my time is relative to development, not agriculture,” he said.
The district’s first responsibility may be to farmers but that has changed. It must also deliver water to communities and households while ensuring quality is maintained. It must handle upstream storm water loaded with phosphates, nitrates, bacteria and other contaminants from Calgary.
“There are little mini-cities going up in all directions so water quality is a major challenge for us,” Webber said.
