Province provides feedback on Bow River reservoir proposal facing backlash – Calgary

As the Alberta government gathers feedback on two proposals for reservoirs upstream on the Bow River, opposition around one of the options continues to grow.

The Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation held an update Wednesday to discuss its ongoing dialogue with the provincial government about its concerns about impacts to the area.

“It would completely destroy the brand new Haskayne Legacy Park, which opened less than a year ago,” said Jeromy Farkas, former Calgary city councilor and mayoral candidate, and current CEO of the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation.

“It would also impact approximately half of the 3,000 hectares in Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.”

The final round of engagement at the site of the future upstream reservoir on April 15, asking for feedback on two of the three possible options the province has been studying.

The first option is the Glenbow East Dam, which would begin in the western edge of Calgary, which would require the relocation of the current Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern rail line and possibly the flooding of a wide range of park space.

The second option is to decommission the existing Ghost Dam and move it further downstream.

A third option to build a dam near Morley on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation is also being studied, but a provincial spokesperson said the proposal is “not ready for public engagement at this time.”

A 2020 assessment of the potential sites classified the downstream effectiveness of the Glenbow East Dam as “very good,” while the effectiveness of the other two options was listed as “good.”

The report noted that while each of the proposals would have environmental impacts, the most pronounced would have an impact on the wide range of park space near the Glenbow East site.

Farkas told Global News that the Glenbow East Dam would not protect nearby Cochrane in the event of a flood or drought, which is one reason he advocates the Ghost Dam option.

He believes that relocating the Ghost Dam would have the least impact on people and wildlife in the area as its expansion would take place on an existing reservoir.

“It is relatively narrow but relatively deep, allowing it to hold an equivalent amount of water, but also allowing less evaporation,” Farkas added.

The report also estimated costs for the Glenbow East option at $992 million, followed by the Morley option at $922 million and the Ghost Dam relocation at $917 million.

A spokesperson for the Minister for the Environment and Parks said public involvement over three years had been “extensive and far-reaching”.

“The engagement that took place between 2021 and 2023 included live virtual sessions, in-person meetings with property owners, online webinars and dozens of meetings with stakeholder groups, including the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation,” Ryan Fournier said in a statement to Global News. “Today’s public engagement is a continuation of that important work.”

Fournier noted that Minister Rebecca Schulz has directed department officials to extend the current round of engagement for another week until May 13.

Jean Woeller, a Calgary resident and president of the Bowness Responsible Flood Mitigation Society, said another upstream reservoir on the Bow River is necessary for both flood and drought protection.

“If we can get more reservoir capacity upstream of Calgary, we benefit from groundwater and overland flooding in Bowness by slowing the rate of river flow. It also provides more water for irrigation,” she told Global News.

A decision from the province is expected sometime next year, but an upstream reservoir likely won’t be operational before 2034, according to the latest provincial timelines.

Woeller said she hopes the province chooses the proposal with the best capacity to slow the river’s flow.

“We are not tied to one particular option,” she says. “But we seek protection.”

&copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.