opinion piece on watershed management...

Edmonton Journal
2005.08.15
by Jay White

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In the face of a waning water supply, we must rethink how we use it: Watershed management with full public involvement will help Albertans make tough decisions in the future
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Alberta's water usually plays second fiddle to its cousin, black gold, but we are now recognizing that there can be no black gold without water.

Water is the fuel not only of the oil and gas industry, but also of irrigation, agriculture, manufacturing and most other industries, not to mention Alberta's aquatic environments and human survival. The fact that a litre of gas is almost $1 may offend most Albertans, but at that same gas station a litre of water is around $2; perhaps this is truly reflective of the relative value of the two resources.

So how can we justify using eight to 12 barrels of water to produce one barrel of gasoline? Because we give water rights away for free to almost anyone who applies for it.

Perhaps we need to begin thinking differently about water.

In a review of water management practices in 2003, Alberta Environment proposed a whole new way of managing water, with shared responsibility across all departments and with water users and the general public. This vision was adopted by the province in 2004, and called Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability (http://www.waterforlife.gov.ab.ca/).

The provincial government released the Water for Life Strategy in 2004 after much consultation with the public, water users and experts. In short, it is the most comprehensive undertaking in Canada to manage water.

It will identify short-term, medium-term and long-term plans to effectively manage the quantity and quality of the province's water systems and supply.

The Water for Life approach uses the watershed scale for planning and is new, but practical, thinking.

A watershed, or river basin, is the area of land that catches precipitation and drains it into a water body. Alberta has seven major watersheds.

A watershed-scale plan encompasses not just the river, but the activities in the surrounding land.

How is this working so far? Well, Albertans have quickly accepted and adopted the watershed approach to managing water. Working at the watershed scale ensures that we are managing all activities on the landscape -- agriculture, forestry, oil and gas -- and considering their cumulative impact, instead of managing each in isolation.

For example, forestry and oil and gas companies now share roads where previously both would have constructed their own.

Of the seven major river basins in Alberta, three had Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils (WPACs) recognized in 2004: the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance, Bow River Basin Council and Oldman River Basin

Water Quality Initiative. The seven major basins can be viewed online at http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/basins/basinform.cfm.

The WPACs are to lead water management planning, develop and promote best management practices, report on the state of the watershed, and promote stewardship and educational activities. Other groups will soon be established for the Milk, Battle, Red Deer, Cold

Lake-Beaver River, Lesser Slave Lake, Athabasca and Peace watersheds.

Even more encouraging is that over 60 different smaller watershed groups have sprung up virtually overnight in an effort to deal with their local issues, on a lake or stream scale. Some of these groups are led by municipalities, while others are led by summer villages, towns or local citizens.

How will this affect water and environmental management in 20 or 30 years?

Scientists tell us the last 100 years in Alberta were the wettest in the past 1,000 years, so Alberta's Centennial celebrations may mark a very wet blip in the province's natural history.

The explosive growth in many parts of the province will continue to strain our water resources. Added to that is our largest challenge: most of the province's water is in the north, while most of the population resides in the south.

We need to think differently about water. There are four actions that every Albertan can do to ensure our future success.

1. Ask questions. Most of us don't think twice about the tap water we drink, or wonder where the water goes when we flush the toilet. Isn't it interesting that many Edmonton and Calgary citizens receive the highest-quality tap water in the world, yet still spend astronomically more on bottled water or in-home water treatment systems?

Remember, the water is free to citizens and business only because they pay only for the treatment and delivery of that water from the utility, not for the water itself.

Do we need treated drinking water to water our lawns and wash our cars? Is that really necessary? Is what we flush down the toilet having an impact on our source water?

Ask questions. Be curious about this resource that so often gets taken for granted. Get educated -- get started at http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/index.html.

2. Get involved. Everyone, everywhere in Alberta is in a watershed. There are hundreds of organizations in Alberta involved with water and the environment that could use your help (see: http://www.albertawatersheds.org). Everyone has something to contribute, and your opinions and attitudes are extremely important. Be part of the planning of your local watershed.

3. Look around. Quite often others have faced similar challenges to our own. There are several good examples of water management solutions in other countries, towns or even the watershed next door. In water-stressed Las Vegas, a Cash for Grass program pays $1 per square foot for removing lawns and creating less water-intensive yards and gardens, saving 2.8 billion gallons of water annually.

4. Think differently about water.

It is hard to convince people that there is a shortage of something that they can get from a tap free in their own home, 24 hours a day.

But the reality in Alberta is that several river basins are at their full allocation and that future land development and expansion of industry will be restricted by the availability of water. These limitations are imminent, and each Albertan must think about water, not as incidental to industrial, commercial and personal uses, but rather as the foundation underpinning them all.

Taking to heart the above four suggestions will arm Albertans to make practical and wise decisions about water.

These decisions will be crucial to move forward in the face of waning water supply and quality. Thinking about water differently now will prevent Albertans from having to deal with some of the very difficult water shortage and water quality problems faced by others elsewhere.

Jay White is a biologist who owns Aquality Environmental Consulting and is a member of the Alberta Water Council