Suffice to say that irrigation in southern Alberta has resulted in that part of the province having the most dynamic and diverse agriculture industry in the country. Clearly when 5 per cent of the land produces 20 per cent of the agricultural production, it’s a success story. That irrigation also supports a food processing industry, worth billions in production, infrastructure and economic spinoffs. It also provides a livelihood for tens of thousands of people through the whole chain.
That success causes one to ponder: Should not expansion of the irrigation system be considered? Clearly, in the long-term, we will need more food and more economic activity. Engineers will tell you that building more infrastructure will make more water available for agriculture - all we need is the political will to invest the millions needed to construct or rebuild more canals, damns and reservoirs.
But what was easy 100 years ago when irrigation development was in its infancy is not to be in this day and age. It’s not because the water isn’t there, it continues to flow - most of it ending up in Hudson’s Bay eventually and lost to further use. But therein lies the opportunity.
Most of the water in southern Alberta that is utilized by cities, industry, agriculture, and, yes, people is used and returned to source. The return percentages differ but one only has to see the water coming out of Calgary water treatment plants where water is recycled. Surely, ways can be found to reuse water more than once - perhaps maybe three times before it is sent downstream to the ocean.
That is being done of course, to a certain extent, but it can surely be increased. What about doing something as a result of conservation methods. High-tech irrigation pivots and nozzles now use 40 per cent less water than before - surely that unused water can be further allocated. But new water allocations are few and far between.
It’s been said that if the irrigation development that happened in the 1890 to 1940 period in southern Alberta had been proposed today, it would all be turned down by busybody government agencies and attacked by self-serving and self-appointed environmental lobby groups. Lethbridge would probably be just another small town and the population in the area would be a tenth or less of what it is today.
Today regulations require complex environmental assessments and impact studies. Such studies, had they been done in the early days, would have found that irrigation reservoirs and canals would upset the balance of nature and threaten wildlife habitat. God forbid that we encroach on gopher holes.
Lobby groups would have mounted million dollar campaigns against the corporate lust to develop land for profit-making agricultural/industrial purposes. The mindlessness of green groups knows no bounds. These twisted groups insist that water use needs to be decreased in Calgary in order to save the glaciers. How increasing the flow of unused water past Calgary towards the ocean will somehow save the world’s water woes and glaciers is perplexing indeed. But then green groups have never suffered from common sense.
To see why future irrigation will likely never happen one only has to view the endless antics of a federal department - Fisheries and Ocean Canada. They arrived on the prairies about 30 years ago, uninvited and unneeded, save for being a massive bureaucratic empire building project. Before their arrival, water, river and irrigation issues and development seemed to be well managed by provincial authorities. However, the feds used their interpretation of federal legislation to intrude into Alberta. It seems, according to the feds, that any water course that can float a canoe or harbour a tadpole falls under their jurisdiction. As expected, busfulls of new bureaucrats were needed along with offices and more staff.
Nightmare experiences abound about this department that requires studies and permits to replace as much as a culvert under a road. Needless to say - any major expansion of irrigation in southern Alberta will be fought to death by such bureaucrats egged on by nefarious green groups. Too bad - one day when food is really needed, many will wonder why nothing was done with such a great resource.