Dust settles on a year of misconceptions in southern Alberta

Cal Braid
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Remember last spring when we told you that Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz was assembling a drought command team to mitigate the severe drought that seemed inevitable? Well…false alarm. The drought squad got off easy as Mother Nature opened the skies and made forecasters look like fools.

At the Bow River Irrigation District, general manager Richard Phillips took a moment to look back as the dust settled on a year of misconceptions. The forecast going into the spring and summer was bleak according to the provincial government, and multiple news agencies reported it as such. Guilty as charged. Then, inexplicably, southern Alberta got a lot more moisture than was expected. Phillips was having none of the negativity and said the perception that we were doomed to drought never matched the reality, especially in his district.

“Actually, I’ll sort of take exception to that,” he said. “I mean, there’s been a tremendous amount of negativity, you know, out in the public and in the media regarding the drought, and last year (2023) was a severe drought. There’s no question.”

However, conditions differed from region to region. “Going into last winter, there was just a world of difference between the situation in the districts that rely on the Bow River and those that rely on the Oldman tributaries. So last year, going into the winter for instance, eastern irrigation districts were at 100 per cent of normal winter storage. In the Bow River Irrigation District, our reservoirs were at 88 per cent of normal winter storage. And we like 100 but you know, 88 is a passing grade by anyone’s standards. It was certainly different in the Oldman. And we saw endless pictures of the Oldman Reservoir and the St. Mary Reservoir that were really low. But even there, St. Mary’s collective storage was a third full because Chin and 40-Mile were in pretty good shape. Ridge was in good shape. Waterton wasn’t bad.”

“But, you know, again, the endless focusing on the worst parts of the system, not looking at the bigger picture. And I’m not saying that you did that, but that was the general collective view of the world.”

“It seemed as we were coming into this spring, things were honestly looking very positive in the Bow, because, again, our reservoirs were a little below normal winter level, but we gained a bunch of local runoff in the spring. So instead of being 88 per cent of normal winter level when we started diverting, we were over 90 per cent, so again, not bad. And then the snowpack in the Bow Basin was excellent by the time we got to the first of May, which is when the snow maxes out.”

Phillips said that on March 20, his birthday, Vauxhall got about 12 inches of wet snow and the surrounding prairies drank it all up. “We had excellent soil moisture, and that’s what the Alberta climate information services site showed. Just excellent soil moisture going into spring, really, across the south by mid-April, and then, of course, lots of rain in May.”

“I mean, it was crazy wet in May, so by the end of May it was obvious that, wow, we’ve got no concerns for water this year at all. Because, again, the snowpack didn’t melt too fast. It was still up there. It was just nothing but positive in terms of the water situation. And it’s been good ever since.”

Water use in the district this year has been well below average due to the rainfall, and the BRID is moving towards winter with reservoir storage where it should be. The reservoirs are somewhat in the low end of normal range, but Phillips said, “It’d be nice if they had more, but they’re certainly within the normal range when you look at them collectively. So yes, again, it’s been a better year than people would expect.”

“I think a lot of people had unrealistically bad expectations. If they would have looked out the window or looked at all the sources available, they would say, well, it’s not that bad.”

“Last year was brutal. This year’s been a good year.”

Cal Braid
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Taber Times