Four southern Alberta dams and reservoirs will receive $104 million worth of upgrades as part of a provincial flood mitigation strategy.
The Travers-Little Bow dam southeast of Vulcan, the Bassano dam near Bassano, the Taylor Coulee wasteway near Cardston and the Bullhorn wasteway, also near Cardston, will all see upgrades in coming months, according to an Alberta government news release.
At Travers, an emergency spillway will be completed and the dam will be raised by 3.35 metres. The additional height will allow storage of another 42 million cubic metres of water. An irrigation outlet will also be replaced.
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Cost of those upgrades is estimated at $33 million.
A new concrete emergency spillway at the Bassano dam will replace an existing earthen spillway. That project will be cost-shared with the Eastern Irrigation District, which owns the dam. The provincial contribution is $30 million.
“The Bassano dam is 100 years old and barely survived the 2013 flood,” EID district chair Bob Chrumka said in a news release.
“We are pleased to partner with the government of Alberta to ensure the dam continues to support irrigation, communities and industry within our district.”
The two Cardston area projects involve replacing wooden spillways with larger concrete spillways. The Taylor structure is designed to in-crease spillway capacity to 100 cubic metres per second. Project cost is estimated at $15 million.
The Bullhorn project will increase spillway capacity to 150 cubic metres per second from 70 cubic metres per second. Estimated cost is $11 million.
The cost for all upgrades includes a contingency fund of $15 million, the province said.
The projects and funding were announced May 21 by Alberta environment minister Robin Campbell.
The upgrades are all designed to help spill excess water in times of flood and protect dams from erosion. The work is part of a larger strategy arising from the 2013 flooding in southern Alberta that did widespread damage.
Alberta has 70 percent of Canada’s irrigated farmland, and the reservoirs are a key part of the system.
Alberta agriculture minister Verlyn Olson noted their importance in his remarks.
“These measures will help protect our irrigation network, which provides a stable, long-term supply of water for producers in southern Alberta,” Olson said.
