The operating plan for Lake Diefenbaker in central Saskatchewan will rank priorities for the lake and the dam
OUTLOOK, Sask. — Irrigators hope their voice has been heard as a new operating plan for Lake Diefenbaker nears completion.
Competing interests have provided input for a plan that has been three years in the making and will likely be finalized next year.
The goal of the plan is to rank operations priorities for the lake and the Gardiner Dam, such as water supply, flood control, power generation and recreation.
“It was never really formally documented where our priorities lie,” said Curtis Hallborg, manager of flow forecasting and operations planning for the provincial Water Security Agency.
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He told South Saskatchewan River Watershed Stewards’ annual general meeting that the agency has prepared different models based on the different priorities.
For example, water levels in the reservoir would be kept low in the spring under a flood control priority and then allowed to creep up in summer.
The scenarios were compared using different measures, such as pumping costs, average spill volumes, the effect on the endangered piper plover population, downstream flows and average water levels for recreational users.
When asked which water use would likely get the top priority, Hallborg said: “If you look at it from a strictly economic perspective it would probably be the power generation. It stood out pretty clearly as the biggest economic benefit.”
However, he quickly added that scenario was focused on economic benefits for Lake Diefenbaker. The current scenario offered the best overall economic benefit if the scope is broadened to include downstream operations.
“I don’t think we’ll see something come out that’s radically different than what we’re doing right now,” said Hallborg.
Irrigators are concerned that SaskPower is pulling the strings behind the scenes of the new operating plan.
“There’s a belief out there that they’re the ones running the show, but I can assure you that’s not the case,” said Hallborg.
He said the new plan will attempt to balance the interest of all water users, but it likely won’t appease everyone.
There are competing interests even in the farm community, where some downstream users near Saskatoon are pushing for flood control while irrigators in the Lake Diefenbaker area want water levels in the reservoirs to be as high as possible.
Roger Pederson, chair of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association, said irrigation tends to be mentioned almost as an afterthought at these types of meetings.
“Irrigation seems to have taken a back seat to all the other uses of the water,” he said, adding that people need a history lesson on the Gardiner Dam.
“The dam got constructed for irrigation. Period. It was the main and only purpose for it originally.”
Pederson said 106,000 acres of Sask-atchewan farmland are irrigated in the Lake Diefenbaker area and downstream. Another 500,000 irrigated acres could be added in the future without jeopardizing other water users, he added.
sean.pratt@producer.com
