As the provincial government takes on a politically charged review of its water allocation system, environmental groups are warning that the final legislation could leave aquatic ecosystems vulnerable to the whims of the province’s growing water market.

Environmental groups want the province to re-examine its “first-in-time, first-in-right” licensing system — whereby irrigators and municipalities that got their licences in the early 1900s have access priority — but a recently released report from a government advisory panel says that system is still a “reasonable basis” for water allocation.

“It comes as something of a surprise,” says Water Matters associate director Joe Obad. The report is one of three provincial government-commissioned reports that pitch tweaks to the system and propose an expanded water market in Alberta. “These documents seem to want to race towards Canada’s first water market while preserving a 100-year-old law that’s served its purpose.” The Sierra Club also says the outdated system no longer makes sense.

The province has already over-allocated water in southern Alberta and shut rivers (including the Bow) to new licences, forcing those in need of water — the town of Okotoks, for example — to buy from existing licensees. Under the current system, senior licence holders get priority access to water even when there’s a shortage. “At the end of the day, water for the environment is junior to senior licence holders,” says Obad.

Former Alberta environment minister Lorne Taylor says the current rights system “doesn’t work well” and “needs to be renovated” if the province chooses to keep it. “My personal opinion is it doesn’t take into account the value of water,” says Taylor, chair of the Alberta Water Research Institute.

Environment Minister Rob Renner says the review will be “more evolutionary” than revolutionary and will respect the historical rights of licence holders. “Respecting historical rights doesn’t necessarily mean that [first-in-time, first-in-right] is not on the table,” he says. “I think there’s an opportunity to make modifications and still respect historical rights…. What will it look like at the end of the day? I don’t know.”

Irrigators and other senior licence holders are pleased to hear that the province isn’t planning drastic changes. Jim Webber, general manager of the Western Irrigation District, says farmers need the security of the current system. “To change that completely threatens the basis of irrigated farming around here,” he says, adding that he expects an “emotional debate” about the issue in the coming months.

The reports advise the province to make it easier to transfer water (currently, each transfer takes a long time and needs cabinet approval). The current system is functional but “clumsy,” says Alberta Water Council executive director Gord Edwards. “We just want to make sure that it’s really transparent to everyone,” he says, adding that the transfer system needs to be more “accessible.”

The reports also advise the province to exempt a certain amount of water from the water transfer market “for environmental and non-consumptive purposes.” But Sierra Club water campaigner Sheila Muxlow says that doesn’t go far enough. “We haven’t seen a guarantee that that protected water is actually going to trump all the senior licensees’ rights to water,” she says. “There needs to be a prioritization of the environment, basic human rights and local community needs in our water management plan.”

The province will now consult with “significant stakeholder groups” and develop a proposed plan, then open it up to public consultation in the spring, Renner says. “As we’ve already seen, there are those who will immediately jump to conclusions — ‘They’re going to do this’ or ‘They could do this,’” he says. “And then we have a public debate that is, for lack of a better term, hijacked by arguing over things that were never intended in the first place.” Developing a “proposed approach,” he says, will help focus the discussion.

The Alberta Water Research Institute’s report to the government suggests municipalities could share water licences to “mitigate the impacts of water shortages” upon citizens. It also suggests that municipal water licences could be re-evaluated and “right-sized” to reflect current and expected water use. Taylor says that currently, municipalities put “as big a pipe as possible in the ground” while replacing water infrastructure.

“What we’re talking about there is determining water needs and conservation objectives, and then right-sizing your pipe…. It really is a way in some sense of determining the conservation objective for a community,” he says.

Obad says the Alberta Water Research Institute report “gives a more balanced view” than the other two reports.