City Notebook: It’s a water world

By COLLIN GALLANT on March 4, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Water, water, it’s everywhere in the news these days.

But is there enough to drink?

The Hat, Redcliff and Cypress County are now jointly studying whether there might be enough water in this dusty part of the province to support a not-so long-term population goal of 100,000.

It seems like simple math.

The Hat alone has a priority water licence for 88 billion litres annually. A dusty report states the city treated 14 billion litres for drinking in 2014.

Cased closed? Not for long.

The city’s main industrial attraction strategy – hydrogen – could see major new requirements for water, especially if water and not natural gas is the feedstock.

And Hatters will get a new environmental road map at city hall this year.

Also there is a broader view.

It hasn’t made much of a ripple yet, but the new provincial budget notes $5 million to study building the “Eyremore Reservoir” near Bassano.

The News was the only outlet to note the amount this week, but that could change soon. The Eastern Irrigation District is set to hold its annual general meeting Tuesday in Brooks.

How big is it? Well, the two biggest districts in Alberta – the St. Mary’s and EID – have a bit more than a million acres between them.

A 1977 study by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Agency pegged potential storage at Eyremore, downstream of the Bassano Dam, at 1.6 million acre feet of water.

Newer versions floated since the 2013 flood as a drought preventative measure are about one-quarter of that capacity, but it’s still big and attached to a minimum $1-billion price tag, the News reported in 2020.

It’s also obviously the mystery project in the background when three projects outlined in a federal-provincial $800-million Alberta irrigation expansion were announced two years ago.

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Rural Municipalities announced Friday a key lobbying priority this year will be the Westside irrigation plan near Lake Diefenbaker (it’s all the same river by the way).

Science fiction

Imagine this.

The year is 2003, and a metallic orb appears in city hall plaza.

All of Medicine Hat gathers around as a hatch swings open and a visitor from the future emerges from the mist.

“I am from the year 2023 and bring invaluable advice,” a voice booms.

“Sell the natural gas fields and invest the money in currency that only exists on the internet. But sell that in 2021.

“Or, start paying more taxes ASAP so my tax rates don’t have to go up in the future.”

Just imagine how fast they’d be stuffed back in the canister.

Little guys go big

Hot off the presses Friday is news that Servus Credit Union and Connect Credit Union plan to amalgamate. This come after a years-long effort by Connect to woo more customers, and in Medicine Hat specifically (the Hat was featured in a stylish ad campaign, and there’s a new branch near Strachan Road). One recalls that Chinook CU joined with First Calgary to create Connect as the second largest credit union in the province. Servus is the biggest and, if approved by regulators and members, the combined entity would boast $31 billion in assets.

For comparison, the same figure for Alberta Treasury Branch in $59 billion.

A look ahead

Council will revisit the proposed Smoking and Vaping bylaw when it meets Monday.

UCP members in Cypress-Medicine Hat will hear nominees debate Thursday at the Medicine Hat Public Library ahead of a Mar. 16 vote.

100 years ago

A new budget from the United Farmers government expected Alberta would post a $2-million deficit in the year ahead, the News reported in early March 1923.

It would mark a second year in the red after revenue increased the previous year, but didn’t meet expectations.

Expenditures of nearly $12 million included grants of $250,000 to 61 locally funded and administered hospitals.

Disturbing reports locally as a county resident shot and killed his wife then himself in a jealous rage at their home six miles from Porter’s Hill, leaving behind six orphan children.

The annual report of Alberta Science and Research Council outlined studies that gasoline could likely be produced in commercial quantities from oil-laden sandy deposits in the McMurray region.

The “Beer Petition” was in order and certified by a legislative committee, triggering the requirement to hold a plebiscite on opening up liquor sales.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com