With Lake Diefenbaker’s vast reserves close at hand, Roger Pederson doesn’t worry much about water availability.
The president of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association says it will be a long time before farmers who irrigate out of the reservoir ever run out of water.
The lake created in 1967 by damming the South Saskatchewan River is 225 kilometres long, 58 metres deep and covers an area of 106,210 acres when full.
“We evaporate more off the lake than we use in irrigation,” said the Outlook, Sask., farmer.
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That reservoir, like many of the irrigation sources across the Prairies, relies on water that comes from rivers that start in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
But conditions are changing in alpine elevations. Glaciers are receding and there is evidence mountain snow and rain patterns are also changing.
There is disagreement and uncertainty about the effects of a warming planet, but some scientists worry the alpine changes might cause problems for those who use the rivers, including farmers, sooner than they think.
Already, Alberta irrigators are using all the water they can, based on what they are able to store, Pederson said.
This year, with record high runoff, it would have been a good time to have more dams and reservoirs in place to capture that water, he added.
Tom Livingston, a rancher from Duchess, Alta., who irrigates his hayland and pasture, said Alberta has to get serious about water storage.
Agricultural irrigation isn’t likely to abate, and growing urban centres will need more water.
The problem as he sees it is that Alberta passes on 80 percent of its water through Saskatchewan and on to Hudson Bay.
“We need the political will to store it,” Livingston said. “Until that changes around, we’ll wave bye-bye to our needed water forever.”
River flows are already declining, said Jim Byrne, an environmental scientist at the University of Lethbridge.
The mountain snow pack is projected to decline up to 40 percent in some upper river systems over the next 20-50 years.
“How much irrigation will be viable in the future?” Byrne asked.
Saskatoon-area irrigator Murray Purcell already knows that low river flows affect his operation.
He invested in his first pivot 20 years ago and irrigates five quarters of grain land right out of the South Saskatchewan River downstream from the Gardiner Dam.
“It’s a huge concern for me,” he said during a break from harvest. “I’m very dependent on the flow from the Gardiner Dam. A consistent flow is really important.”
Coming off of five low-level years during the drought, Purcell also worried what will happen if Saskatchewan doesn’t develop its irrigation potential.
“We’re quite a bit behind,” Purcell said. “(Alberta might) ask for more and that would affect me as a down-river user.”
Research scientist Chris Hopkinson said there is no doubt the demand on water is increasing while river flows are decreasing. Farmers who irrigate could someday find themselves facing voluntary or mandated efficiency practices.
“At some point in time the issue is going to become critical,” he said.
