Water supply running dry amid scorching summer
Lack of rain reducing river flows, leaving Alberta reservoirs depleted
Alberta is facing a water shortage not seen since 2001 amid one of the hottest and driest summers on record, a provincial government official says.
Last week, the province issued at least 40 water shortage advisories halting water diversions from rivers along with mandatory and voluntary fishing bans, as the parched weather conditions depleted reservoirs, said David Hunt, water approvals team lead with Alberta Environment and Parks.
“It’s the (low) precipitation and high temperatures — it’s what we have to manage,” said Hunt.
“If it continues this way, we’ll have the same situation we had in 1999 to 2001.”
At that time, agricultural and other large users dealt with reservoirs depleted to the point where they faced foregoing 50 per cent of their normal allotments, he said.
Users, particularly in the province’s south, are seeing a repeat of those times, Hunt said.
“This year, for the major irrigation districts, water demand has been high and their reservoir levels have been depleted and they’ll be looking to fill them for a supply for next year,” he said.
A heavy snow pack and wet spring were good signs earlier this year, but they’ve been evaporated by unusually persistent heat and low rainfall since, he said. Compliance with orders to halt water diversions has been good, Hunt added.
The towns of Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Okotoks have banned outdoor water use due to heavy demand and dwindling supply, though the latter centre is still operating its splash park and aquatic facilities because it uses a loop of recycled water.
It’s probably the driest summer since the start of the century, said Richard Phillips, vice-chairman of the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association, which represents 13 irrigation districts.
“We’d be happy to see more rain in the mountains, everyone would,” said Phillips, who’s also general manager of the Bow River Irrigation District.
Flows in many rivers in the province’s south are down by a third compared to the long-term average, while rainfall is 50 per cent below normal amounts, Phillips said.
“We really haven’t had a good rain since June 22 ... everyone had their reservoirs in good shape, that’s what’s carrying us,” he said.
Even so, considerable improvements in efficiency have ensured the irrigation districts are still in decent shape, Phillips said.
“We’re 25 per cent larger than we were in 2001 and we’re using less water, which lets us irrigate a lot more land,” he said, adding a good mountain snow mass has helped.
“We’re all drawing on our reservoirs, we’ve had very little rain and very high irrigation demand, but the big difference this year is we’ve had a good flow from the snow pack.”
Echoing those sentiments is Frank Frigo, Calgary’s river expert, though he says a long-term concern is the city’s lack of significant water storage infrastructure.
Climate change has been playing a role in steadily decreasing river flows in Alberta over the past century, particularly in the south, with disappearing mountain glaciers a threat to later summer supplies, prominent University of Alberta environmental scientist David Schindler has said.
There are about 40,000 licensed municipal, agricultural, industrial and commercial water users in the province.