New U of S water research lab to focus on climate change

The University of Saskatchewan is opening a research facility near the Rocky Mountains to study the effects of climate change on Canada’s waters.

The new Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore, Alta. will be used to study the retreating glaciers and nearby water sources in the mountains to get a better understanding of how climate change will affect nearby communities.

John Pomeroy, a professor of geography at the U of S and Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, said his team can better understand how waterways work in Saskatchewan by conducting research at the western edges of Alberta.

“We identified about 15 years ago that the university hydrology research needed to focus on the source waters of the waters that sustain the province,” Pomeroy said, noting Saskatchewan’s economy and the livelihood of all its residents is connected to the province’s waters.

With the university’s budget in flux after a reduction in funding from the province, the Coldwater Laboratory and upcoming research were funded by a grant from the federal government.

The Global Water Futures program, funded through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, awarded the water research program $77.8 million — the largest grant ever given to the university, and the largest grant for any university water research program in the world.

“We have so many serious water problems and issues facing Saskatchewan,” Pomeroy said. “Not only worries about changes in the river, but flooding, drought, contamination of water ... the Global Water Futures program allows us to address all of these.”

In the short term, Pomeroy said he hopes the research conducted from the Coldwater Laboratory will help develop new technologies to predict avalanches and floods in the mountain areas. Long-term research will focus more on the Saskatchewan rivers that originate from mountain sources.

Pomeroy said the facility has been a dream of his for 37 years.

“It’s the University of Saskatchewan at Canmore, and it’s a wonderful thing to have that sort of expansion.”