| Shorter showers and low-flow toilets will do little to solve the province’s looming water shortage, according to a local environmental think tank.
While efforts on the part of individuals to reduce water consumption are beneficial, the Pembina Institute says water consumption by cities accounts for a mere one per cent of Alberta’s total water usage, and most water used by urban centres actually gets returned to the water table.
It is industrial development and the mass exploitation of resources that threatens to leave Alberta’s most precious resource in short supply in the coming years if the province doesn’t step in, environmental groups warn.
Groups like the Pembina Institute, the Parkland Institute, the Sierra Club and even former premier Peter Lougheed are raising concerns over water usage. Pembina states that disputes with neighbouring provinces and border states, water shortages in southern Alberta communities, frequent droughts and even water rationing are just some of the problems the province will soon face if action is not taken.
An estimated 85 per cent of the province’s water is in the north, while the vast majority of the population is in the south. According to the Pembina Institute, serious consequences are inevitable if stricter government regulations are not implemented soon.
"The government needs to set serious guidelines for industry and start setting limits on how much water can be used," says Ricardo Acuna, executive director of the Pembina Institute. "The government’s own Water for Life strategy has a lot of really nice language but very few tangibles that can be enforced."
The provincial government created the Water for Life strategy in response to the growing concerns over a future water shortage. The initiative sets limits on the amount of water companies are permitted to use. But Acuna says there is too much focus on individual efforts to reduce water consumption.
Alberta Environment maintains that it is getting tough on industry, and that restrictions are tightening.
"With the Water for Life strategy, we look at environmental impacts of water usage in a specific area, as well as specific concerns for that area," says Sherri-Dawn Annett, spokesperson for Alberta Environment. "We are seeing where efficiencies can be gained to ensure we have a reliable water supply for our economy."
According to a report out of the Parkland Institute, demand for water in Alberta will exceed availability by 56 per cent by the year 2025 at the province’s current rate. Seemingly permissive government regulations, coupled with the rapid expansion of industry, have raised dire concerns across Alberta.
The Pembina Institute recently conducted a study called Troubled Waters, Troubling Trends, which calls for the need to reduce the oil industry’s use of water in Alberta.
To extract oil, companies inject the ground with steam. As oilsands development continues, the demand on the province’s water supply will proportionately increase. The report calls for the establishment of clear water use targets within the oil sector, and even suggests oil companies pay fees for water use to encourage greater efficiency.
And while the extraction of bitumen from the oilsands is pinned as a major culprit in the increasing demand for water, at 44.8 per cent of water use in Alberta, the biggest drain to the water supply is actually coming from one of the province’s oldest industries, agriculture.
"Oddly, in Alberta the biggest threat is large-scale agriculture. They are the biggest consumers of water," says Acuna. "A large part of this reality is that the Alberta climate doesn’t lend itself to the type of agriculture we carry out. That is why we have to irrigate. The amount of challenges placed on our water already is not conducive to water sustainability in the long term."
The trend in the Alberta agricultural sector is toward fewer farms with higher density of livestock, such as "battery" chicken operations and feedlots. For example, some large-scale pig farms can handle livestock in the tens of thousands, all cramped into a relatively small area.
The Society for Environmentally Responsible Livestock Operations (SERLO) formed five years ago to raise awareness about the trend. SERLO warns that high concentrations of farms, particularly in the "feedlot alley" area north of Lethbridge, means a larger, more concentrated drain on the water tables in the south, as opposed to smaller operations dispersed across the province.
"In a time when we are trying to conserve water, how can we keep expanding and approving certain industries which are causing the problem?" says Lisa-Bechthold, vice president of SERLO. "Farmers have been raising livestock for thousands of years without this problem."
Challenges we are going to face, according to Acuna, are water shortages in many communities across the province, particularly in the south, as well as a definite impact in terms of costs of locally produced vegetables and livestock. In addition, he says, concerns over water quality will also increase, and Albertans will potentially have to pay for water.
"On a larger scale, we’ll see more frequent droughts and the economic impacts those bring with them," says Acuna. "We need to target industry. Our glaciers are receding at an alarming rate and those feed our rivers. Changing home consumption patterns is a positive thing, but it will not solve our problems in the long term." |
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