Parched Alberta negotiating with water holders to strike share agreements

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Conditions are so dry in Alberta that, for the first time in more than 20 years, the government is negotiating with major water licence holders to strike voluntary water-sharing agreements in the Red Deer River, Bow River and Oldman River basins.

It will be the most extensive water-sharing negotiations ever to occur in Alberta.

Meanwhile, the fossil-fuel sector is lobbying the provincial government to allow water to be moved between major basins, and permit the transfer of water allowances between oil and gas operators.

Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz issued a blunt warning during a virtual town-hall meeting this week: “Right now, we don’t expect that Alberta will receive enough precipitation to prevent a serious drought. We have to prepare for the worst.”

But she said the oil and gas sector will not be singled out when it comes to reducing water use. Nor is the province considering changes to a policy that governs how much oil-sands operators can withdraw from the Athabasca River.

“This isn’t really going to be about looking at one industry over another,” Ms. Schulz said Tuesday. “All of us need to come together to look at where we can conserve water and where we may need to reallocate water.”

There are 51 water-shortage advisories in place across Alberta, with rivers and reservoirs at historic lows. If a severe drought occurs this year, as expected, the agreements being negotiated by the province would see major users use less water to help others downstream.

Around 25,000 organizations and businesses hold licences for 9.5 billion cubic metres of water in Alberta. The province will prioritize negotiations with the largest ones to try and secure significant and timely reductions in water use. The scope and scale of that work is unprecedented in Alberta’s history, according to the province.

Ms. Schulz said the government will also get creative with its water-allocation program, by digitizing licences for a more-nimble system, reviewing licences “and doing anything we can do to free up some water allocation.” It will also look at water-storage options in the province.

Oil and gas activities make up around 12 per cent of the water licensed for diversion from Alberta’s rivers and lakes – a similar proportion to municipalities, but far shy of the 47 per cent allocated to agriculture.

Over the past six months, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has been pressing the government for changes to the Water Act, according to Alberta Lobbyist Registry records.

It wants the government to allow low-risk transfers of water across major basin boundaries, unused water allocations to be returned to the pool of allowances and the reallocation of water between licensees. CAPP is also lobbying the government for policies around how alternative water sources are defined and used, as well as processes to facilitate water and wastewater sharing.

But any plan to move water between basins is tricky, said Martin Olszynski, an associate professor in environmental law at the University of Calgary.

Section 47 of Alberta’s Water Act prohibits transfers between major basins unless there’s a special act of the legislature, he said in an interview, but he worries that CAPP’s lobbying of the government will see the province override its own laws.

“Clearly there is a concern that this drought will be a limiting factor for oil and gas development in the province, and that’s why they are talking about and raising fairly drastic solutions, such as inter-basin transfers,” he said.

CAPP also wants the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to improve rules around how municipal and industrial wastewater can be used for fracking, in which water is injected underground at high pressure to fracture rocks, getting at oil and gas trapped inside. One regional agency in central Alberta has already banned oil and gas operations from using its treated water for fracking, as parched conditions show no sign of abating.

In an e-mail Wednesday, CAPP did not say why it was lobbying the government on Water Act changes, saying only that it works with regulators, municipalities, the province and other industries “to ensure water resources are protected.”

Alberta has long been dogged by its dry climate. In the early 2000s, a severe drought had the environment minister of the day, Lorne Taylor, propose a plan to divert northern Alberta rivers and lakes to the parched south. Then-premier Ralph Klein rejected the idea.

Some rivers are now at or below levels measured in 2000. The AER warned the oil and gas industry in December that it should start making plans because companies may not be able to divert water toward their operations in 2024.