The Food Issue
2015
Grains
West
20
SUSTAINABLE THINKING
Too often, the people who use the most
of a resource, the ones who benefit the
most from it, are the ones most reluctant
to change. In the case of farmers, who use
most of the province’s water, that couldn’t
be further from the truth. Farmers need
little reminding about how vital water is to
their livelihood, and they work hard to find
more sustainable ways to use it.
One such farmer is Matthew Stanford
who, with his father and brother, farms
2,500 acres of
alfalfa, wheat,
canola and flax
near Lethbridge.
Drawing his water
from the St. Mary
River, Stanford
knows how vital
water is to his
livelihood. The
alfalfa he grows for
the dairy market
can be harvested
three times a year,
in June, July and August. Relying on just
natural rainfall, he would be harvesting
only once before summer dryness
stunted the crop.
The need to think about water
resources is especially acute for southern
Alberta farmers who draw from the
St. Mary River. “We have to share the
water flow with the U.S. as well as with
Saskatchewan,” Stanford said. “So a
portion of the water is not for us right off
the bat.”
Priding themselves on adapting
ahead of necessity, Stanford and his
fellow farmers have been modernizing
their water infrastructure. They’ve been
replacing open ditches, from which
water can evaporate or seep away into
the surrounding soil, with covered pipes,
as well as running their irrigation lines
to take as much advantage of gravity
pressure as possible, reducing the need
for expensive pumps.
They’ve also taken steps to reduce
water wastage on their farms, right where
the water gets on the fields—the pivots
on irrigation machinery. “All of the pivots
that we’ve bought in the last seven years
have computerized panels that allow us
to do variable-rate applications, to divide
the field up into as many pie-shaped
pieces as we want,” Stanford said. “So
if the northeast quadrant is a hilltop,
we slow the pivot down, but when it
is spraying on clay we can speed it up,
because the soil holds water better.” This
saves not only water but time as well,
since Stanford doesn’t have to adjust the
pivots by hand—he can do it from his
mobile phone.
Every year,
Alberta farmers are
bringing more and
more computerized
pivots online,
incorporating
a range of
water-saving
technologies.
Stanford and his
fellow farmers
provide a model
of proactive
thinking for Albertans and other Western
Canadians about how to manage water.
It’s an important step, and small savings
go a long way.
PRESSURES ONWATER IN ALBERTA
All of this—thriving communities, large
and small; an employment-generating
oil and gas industry; and productive
agriculture—depend on a steady,
continuous flow of water. We are used
to water being available in unlimited
quantities, at our command, and for
a very low price. Because of this, we
project our use into the future and
imagine that it will never be interrupted.
Unfortunately, unless we change our
thinking and our habits, the change that
is already happening in the water cycle
will creep up on us.
Sandford’s biggest concern is what
climatologists refer to as an “energized
hydrologic cycle.” The last few decades
have seen steadily warming average
temperatures around the globe. One
of the most basic facts in atmospheric
science is that warmer air holds
more water vapour—each degree of
temperature increase enables air to hold
seven per cent more water.
The effects of this increase are varied.
Wet areas like the coast of British
Columbia, where the landforms and
climate already produce significant
precipitation, will become even wetter.
Drier areas like the American Midwest
and Canadian Prairies, on the other
hand, will be even drier, as the higher
temperatures increase evaporation over
the land and the wetter air carries the
water away.
“Glaciers are disappearing, and
precipitation patterns are changing in
our western mountains, which will affect
water supply in Alberta,” Sandford said.
“While land-use changes and increased
flooding are, for the moment at least, part
of a new hydro-climatic circumstance on
the Prairies, deep and persistent drought
remains a serious threat.”
Sandford believes that Albertans (and
Canadians in general) have been overly
complacent about our water resources
and the new threats we are facing.
Measured by outflow, the amount of
water that leaves the province to return
to the oceans, we use eight per cent
of the province’s surface water. That
may not sound like much, but our entire
water infrastructure, an investment worth
billions of dollars, is oriented towards
where the water is readily available now.
WATER FOR LIFE
Acknowledging these threats to the
sustainability of Alberta’s water, and all
the life and livelihood that depends upon
it, the Province introduced the Water
for Life strategy in 2009. Designed as
a comprehensive plan to address the
growing pressures on the water system
from both population and the economy,
it outlined the policies the government
will implement over the next 10 years.
The primary goals outlined were
ensuring Albertans have access to safe,
secure drinking water; preserving healthy
aquatic ecosystems; and maintaining
a reliable supply of quality water for a
sustainable economy.
“Glaciers are
disappearing, and
precipitation patterns are
changing in our western
mountains, which will
affect water supply in
Alberta”
–Robert Sandford
