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The Alberta economic boom has left the City of Calgary wrestling with how to support a growing population while protecting the precious water in the Bow River and its tributaries.
John Jagorinec, senior water quality and regulatory analyst at the City of Calgary, said the city grew by 28,183 people between 2006 and 2007—an increase typical of the past few years.
The population of Alberta swelled by 10 per cent—with more than 315,000 additional people—between 2001 and 2006.
With water scarce in southern Alberta—and much of it allocated for agriculture—Calgary has responded with aggressive water conservation programs and upgrades to its sewage and drinking water treatment plants.
“We’re using less water today than we were in the 1980s,” Mr. Jagorinec said. “And our waste treatment plant has been rated the best in Canada and one of the best in the world.”
The mountain towns along the Bow, including Lake Louise and Banff, also have aggressive sewage treatment programs. The initiatives appear to be working: data collected between 2003 and 2005 yielded ratings for the Bow River ranging from “good” to “excellent,” and a “good” rating for the Elbow River.
Still, Brian Meagher, a biologist with Trout Unlimited, is concerned about new housing developments on the banks of the Elbow River, which flows into the Bow in the heart of Calgary. When the natural buffer zones of vegetation around a river are removed, runoff from streets and lawns can pollute the river.
“A lot of the positives can be easily lost when you have people that are mowing the grass right to the edge and removing all the trees from the riparian zone,” he said.
Mr. Meagher believes Alberta should rein in its oil boom.
“Water is going to be the new commodity of the future,” said Mr. Meagher. “We don’t need oil and gas to live, but we do require water for life.”
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007