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River-conscious environmentalists deride Tory government’s new watershed council as a useless exercise. Industry, however, is on board

Up and down the Athabasca River, in Jasper, Fort McMurray, Fort Chipewyan and Edson, for the past eight months, citizens have been meeting to discuss how they can protect the river from further environmental damage.

After decades of oilsands development, the people living on the Athabasca River have been worried for much longer than eight months, says Harvey Scott, one of the leading members of the newly formed Keepers of the Athabasca Alliance (KAA), the group spawned by these discussions. First Nations people living on the Athabasca have reported sick fish, moose and other deformed animals for years but have been unable to get the Alberta government to respond to their concerns.

Now the Alberta government is proposing a separate, government-led, multi-stakeholder group called the Athabasca Watershed Planning and Advisory Council to help plan future use of the river. Watershed councils are arms-length, non-profit groups composed of concerned citizens, environmentalists and government and industry leaders. The councils assess the state of their river and create a management plan for Alberta Environment. (The North Saskatchewan, Bow, Beaver and Oldman rivers already have councils in place.) Scott is skeptical about the assessment, questioning whether it will lead to action.

“I’ve gone though this process of consultations, and basically it was an exercise,” says Scott. “Mr. Stelmach has said they have no intention of turning away any investment.”

This is the sticking point for most water activists. The Alberta government has already committed to further oilsands expansion, despite calls from experts for a moratorium. University of Alberta water scientist David Schindler, at the very least, wants to see a slowdown in the development of the oilsands until a proper assessment of the province’s water assets and needs is completed. Oilsands companies already hold 84 per cent of the water licences on the Athabasca. His research has shown that the river is 30 per cent below historic levels, even though the 20th century was one of the wettest in recorded history. Watershed plans mean nothing if the government is already committed to oil sands expansion.

“It’s like they develop these councils to keep the average citizens busy,” says Schindler. “Meanwhile, they are proceeding as they always have, with decisions that affect these river systems.”

If the provincial government is going to fund these watershed councils and present them as a form of environmental stewardship, Schindler continues, then Environment Minister Rob Renner should be obligated to implement their recommendations.

Kelvin Duan, manager of projects and approvals with the Calgary-based oil company Canadian Natural, thinks Schindler’s attitude is a cop-out. “That’s always a very safe and easy thing to do,” he says, “because it quickly abdicates to Big Brother to look after us.” He says that a better strategy for concerned citizens and environmentalists would be to come to the table and negotiate plans with industry — to engage in the watershed council process — instead of advocating their own vision for Alberta’s environment from outside. Duan says Canadian Natural wants a seat at the Athabasca watershed council and fully supports the process.

This may sound like the expected response from an oil executive: the oil industry has ignored calls to halt its incursions into the oilsands. However, other experts are buying into the process. South of the Athabasca, David Trew is more confident about the role of the watershed councils than fellow biologist Schindler. The executive director of the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance (NSWA) thinks councils like his can provide much-needed long-term planning. As a biologist with Alberta Environment in the 1980s, Trew monitored water levels and flow in the province’s rivers, work he found very effective. In 1995, however, the Ralph Klein government disbanded the water planning department of Alberta Environment. Trew thinks arms-length groups like the NSWA are filling the void.

“Someone has to do it,” Trew says. “I’m not here to waste my time. I’m trying to make this work.... If we do our groundwork right, there’s a higher probability that it will get implemented.”

Still, he thinks much of the work he’s doing now could have been done 20 years ago. The tools and techniques he’s currently using to build a watershed management plan are nothing new. In Ontario, for example, conservation authorities created in the 1940s to devise methods for preventing floods have naturally taken on water conservation issues for decades.

And KAA is also well ahead of the game. The group is currently preparing a “State of the River” report, which it hopes to present to Renner in February — the same time the first government-sponsored Athabasca watershed council workshop begins.