Speaking of Water..Important . Check this out

[kato]

I read an article in the paper today about NAFTA and water. Seems our government has misled us about our water and who can own it. We were told Canada controls it's own water, but apparently that's only if the Americans don't want it first.

Please check out this link.

http://www.farmertofarmer.ca/water_resolution.html

The article was written by WENDY R. HOLM, P.AG., She is an Economist and Agrologist.

[cakadu]

kato - a couple of years back we were watching a program like W-5 or 20/20 - can't remember what it was and they were talking about this very issue. There is some multi-billion dollar lawsuit going on now because of the fact that California (I believe it was) was suing over not being able to get water from BC. It all had to do with NAFTA and whether or not the U.S. could sue us. They are desperate for water down there and see what we have as a potential windfall.

We have to protect this natural resource as much as we can and pull out all the stops in order to do so. All we have to do is look at the melt situation this year and know that we are in a position that we don't want to be in.

Under the Alberta Water for Life strategy there are mandates for the formation of watershed groups and Water Policy and Advisory Councils. Some of these are underway now - like the watershed groups and others like the Councils are just in the formative stages. I would encourage all of you to get involved to the extent that you are able. We are fast reaching a critical point in our water supplies and we should be giving serious consideration to restoring the wetlands that were drained and doing what we can to replenish our fresh water resources. Once they're gone, I'm not sure how we can get them back.

[cowman]

While I totally agree that water needs to be managed to the utmost, I get a lttle leery of the government involvement? How do we take a government seriously when they have clearly shown that they will do whatever it takes to keep the money pouring in? They are addicted to big bucks and I doubt they could operate like most other provinces have to?
Do you really think the Klein government would protect our water if the Americans got out the checkbook?
Fortunately, I believe, Klein made a mistake when he insisted that we all register our water wells. He in fact opened the door to "water rights". Now it will be the individual and not the government who owns the water? And if the free market is allowed to operate then water will have a price and that is when we will find out if it really makes sense to dump billions of gallons into deep formations to extract a bit more natural gas? Or for that matter if it makes sense to water animals that aren't making any money now? Or if irrigation really makes sense?
It won't happen in my lifetime but I see the day when water will be worth more than oil.

[cakadu]

Cowman - in economics class, what you are speaking of - water being worth more than oil - is referred to as the "diamond/water paradox". Essentially that means that we do not want to pay anything for water because there is lots (we hope) and diamonds are rare. There will come a time when water is worth more than anything else we need.

To me, that is why it is so important to do what we can to preserve water now. We may not see it in our lifetime, but for future generations, this is a big ticket item.

You bring up a good point though about irrigation. What is going to happen this year with the water diverted to irrigation? We know that the runoff has been less than anticipated (there was very little) and who knows what the snow melt will bring. The irrigation people are normally asking for more water all the time - how can they get what there isn't to give? What will happen to the irrigation system as it sits now i.e. will there have to be some re-vamping in order to address what appears to be an ever growing water concern?

[nakodo]

Another arguement is that if you have something someone bigger than you wants, you might need to negotiate, especially if you have it in excess (like rivers running into oceans) -

if they need what you have in order to survive you had better think twice about telling them what is behind the dam on your your side of the border is yours and the dried up river bed on their side is theirs.

[Horse]

Irigation does anyone know what the cost of running an irigation district is and how much does the public kick in to make it work it is my understanding that if is not possible to recover costs fully from the cost of water to users.

[cowman]

A little side note on the irrigation thing. Recently there was a seminar/round table thing held on the South Saskatchewan river basin. The deal is that Alberta is allowed to use one half of the flow and must allow the other half to enter Saskatchewan. Apparently the Bow River system and the Oldman system are using more than half in Alberta while the Red Deer river system doesn't use half of their flow, but it supplements the losses in the Bow and Oldman. Which has worked out okay so far, but what happens if the people along the Red Deer ever want to use their fair share? The implication is that the Bow/Oldman irrigation districts would have to use less water. Which frankly means a lot of irrigated land would return to dryland/desert!
I doubt this is going to ever happen although legally it could happen. I suspect water is going to become a big deal in the not to distant future?

[cakadu]

Once upon a time I heard a figure of something like 87% of the costs of the irrigation districts are picked up by the public purse. Now that figure could be off, so I wouldn't quote me on it.

The issue of water is becoming more and more centre stage all the time. Look at what is happening out there right now, especially in our area of Central Alberta. The promised/forecast rains and snows have not yet materialized this spring, the wind keeps blowing and there hasn't been any runoff. Grassfarmer has provided the statistics - we had 67% of the normal snowfall in a year.

Its beginning to get green out there and I hope we do get what we need in the way of moisture at the right time. Does anyone know a good rain dance?

[cakadu]

I should also have mentioned that as we speak some $10.8 million has been earmarked for piping water out of the Red Deer river system to smaller municipalities that do not have enough water to sustain their current requirements. We are fast going to be approaching getting the capacity out of the Red Deer River.
If the runoff continues to dwindle as it has over the past few years, then even the Red Deer river's flow is going to decrease and then what do we do? There are going to be more and more pressures for the water that we have, without the added burden of having to see some of it go south of the border.

Several years ago there was a study that said by the year 2020 there will be no new development south of Ponoka because there simply won't be the water to sustain it. I haven't seen anything since that will contradict that statement.