OLDS — A presentation on a feasibility study to build a dam and reservoir on the Red Deer River sparked interest among Town of Olds council members.
Rudy Friesen, executive director of the Red Deer River Municipal Users Group (RDRMUG), gave the presentation during the council’s committee of the whole meeting on May 5.
Olds is a member of the RDRMUG.
The dam and reservoir, which would be located near Ardley, about 70 kilometres east of Red Deer, is a concept that goes back as far as 1954.
The provincial government has issued a request for proposals to undertake a feasibility study of the proposed project.
The idea would be to store water for growing populations in Central Alberta and to provide irrigation for farmers and ranchers.
Friesen said for the first time in about 10 years, the provincial government is “opening up the Water Act to look at different ways to maximize our storage, our capacity and our ability to continue to grow the province.”
He said the Red Deer River “does not currently have enough levers to effectively manage the variability induced by climate change.”
“We've got one lever to pull: Gleniffer (Lake).”
He said under a drought scenario, Gleniffer Lake/Dickson dam can provide water for the Red Deer River system for about a year.
“And if there's another year of drought, Gleniffer’s about empty.”
Other watersheds have other “levers,” he indicted, something that will be of increasing importance due to population growth as well as the effects of climate change.
“If we want to grow our communities and be sustainable, we’ve got to store that water so that we can effectively manage it,” Friesen said.
He told council the cost to build the Ardley dam and reservoir could range between $2 and $4 billion.
Friesen said “conventional wisdom” says it would take about 25 years to build it, but he said one being constructed at Springbank, west of Calgary, is expected to be complete in 10 years.
“We've had some of the experts that are connected to our organization do some analysis of what it means to have this storage on the Red Deer River,” Friesen said.
“And to give you a sense, this reservoir would be about four times the size of Gleniffer, just based on where they would put the dam and the natural reservoir space that lays as it goes back upstream. That's a significant body of water.
“And when you do the analysis on the dam’s cubes (cubic metres of water) and the capacity to benefit upstream and downstream, they believe that it would expand.
“It would almost double the licensing capacity of the Red Deer River. So that's how valuable storage is.”
Friesen said another “very high level of concern” for RDRMUG is the possibility of inter-basin transfers, where water is transferred from one river basin to another.
“When you look at the size of the Red Deer River in comparison to its sister watersheds in the basin, if we start talking about inter-basin transfers, we certainly lose our voice in the conversation fairly quickly,” he said.
“We're advocating for the best uses of the water resources that exist in the Red Deer watershed.”
Coun. Dan Daley noted that the Dixon Dam is also a power generating facility. He asked if the Aardley dam would be too.
“We've discussed it as a group,” Friesen said. “We've posed the question of the province, and the province has said at this time that there's no commitment to that, just study the feasibility of the water basin.
“That said, common logic would tell you that that you've got this energy that's stored behind this this dam. It would be logical to use it for some energy creation as well.
“And I think that's something that could logically feed irrigation or other projects in that region as well.”
Dep mayor Wanda Blatz, who chaired the meeting, thanked Friesen for his presentation.
“I know from sitting past term for four years on RDRMUG how valuable this study will be,” she said.
Council voted to accept Friesen’s report as information.
