Investigation underway for possible Special Areas, Acadia irrigation
Investigation into the feasibility of developing irrigation in the Special Areas and M.D. of Acadia continues this summer.
In partnership between the Special Areas Board, M.D. of Acadia, Alberta Agriculture & Forestry, and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, the idea to potentially bring irrigation into the area was first brought forward in late 2020, and formalized in early 2021.
“The impetus behind this work was that the MD had an existing irrigation project that they were looking at and Special Areas had done some work on another kind of broader water supply project that we were working on,” said Jordon Christianson, Chair of the Special Areas Board. “All four parties came together to just see if we could leverage some of the existing work that’s been done, and re
ally be a little bit more focused on developing a project that delivered broader irrigation opportunities for the region.”
Currently, the investigation is focused on several factors related to the suitability of the area for irrigation, including the varieties of soil available and if they would be appropriate for irrigation, said Christianson. At this time, where the water will come from and if a new irrigation district will have to be created is not yet known.
“We are also looking at water availability. Where would the water source be, how much water is available, the seasonality of water for use for irrigation, stuff like that. So we’d be looking at, you know, those issues related to irrigation,” said Christianson. “We talked a little bit about governance. That would be one to, if we did create a new project or developed a new project, what kind of the governance structure would look like, and how that would play out. So those are all things that are being considered in this. I’ll also say the business case, as well. Because again, we want a project that is affordable, both on kind of upfront capital costs, and on longer term operational costs as well, for the producer.”
“Obviously, if there was a decision to go forward with an investment on this, it would be considerable upfront investment on the capital side. That’s part of the work that we’re doing is like trying to figure out if you did a conceptual design of an irrigation project and get some solid estimations on capital costs, how much it will cost to build the project,” said Christianson.
This project is unrelated to the termination of the XL pipeline project, which was previously planned to run through Oyen.
“They’re not really related issues. The reality here is that it’s crystal clear on years like this one when we’re facing wide scale drought and people are struggling to fill feed yards and and crops are suffering. You know, this is just an arid part of the province. Having said that though, there’s still some real benefits for agriculture out here. Irrigation is just one way of securing that kind of longer term sustainability on agricultural production. I think there’s merit in exploring what those opportunities might be.”