According to the straw vote of an agitated standing-room-only crowd in a townhall in Cochrane Saturday, the provincial government could save a lot of time and money by just abandoning the feasibility study of a flood/drought mitigation project that would see water from the Bow River reach the east end of town, and flood out the Haskayne Legacy Park before it’s even a year old.
Officials from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas (AEPA) have been exploring options to mitigate flood damage and address drought conditions for about five years, in the wake of the 2013 flood in southern Alberta.
The province sent three officials down to the Frank Wills Memorial Hall Saturday for the townhall. One of them said at the outset, “your voices are super critical.”
Turns out he was right.
The meeting got off to a rocky start when some in the crowd demanded answers before the government officials had a chance to present their information.
Until recently there were three reservoir options under consideration by hydrologists, engineers and others, with online surveys and consultations attached to each.
The so-called Morley option – a new dam in Morley – is, according to the AEPA website, not a part of the current online survey, which expires May 13. No explanation has been given as to why Morley is now not part of the online survey, and government officials have said it’s still on the table.
So that leaves two options open for discussion online currently: expansion of the Ghost reservoir, or the Glenbow East option, a new dam which would be built just east of the Town of Cochrane.
The Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation has been outspoken in its opposition to this option, citing irreversible ecological damage not just to the park, but to their new neighbours, the Haskayne Legacy Park, which sits adjacent to Glenbow Ranch Park.
A government sponsored study done in 2020 predicts the Glenbow East option would destroy the new legacy park. Philanthropists Dick and Lois Haskayne donated the land for the Haskayne Legacy Park, valued at $5 million, and added $2 million towards the construction of the pavilion.
Projections show the berm for the new project would run right down the middle of the new Haskayne pavilion building, (the site of the ribbon-cutting ceremony last October) and submerge the western portion of the park.
Fourteen private residences would be flooded out as well.
Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park Foundation CEO Jeromy Farkas said If the Glenbow East option is built, much of the Glenbow Ranch Park’s conservation lands outside of the park (valued at more than $8 million) will be lost, while about a third of Glenbow Ranch would be flooded, including historic grasslands that contribute to overall watershed health.
On Saturday Farkas said the GRPF called the meeting to be “solution finders, not just complainers.”
GPRF Board Chair Georg Paffrath told the crowd he had spent months reading through over 300 pages of government documents and summarized what he saw as the main difference between the Glenbow East (Cochrane) option and the Ghost expansion option.
In the event of another 2013 level flood, with the Glenbow East option, he said water would rise to the doors of the SLS Centre, and onto Griffin Road. The Ghost option would prevent that, by holding the water upstream.
And in terms of drought mitigation, the Ghost option would add 90,000 cubic metres of additional storage; the Glenbow East dam would add 120,000.
Paffrath questioned the value of the additional 30,000 cubic metres of storage, when weighed against the impact on east Cochrane, loss of parkland, acreages, etc.
“And I realize, as a Cochranite, that water isn’t even for me – it’s for somebody called Cal and Gary down the road,” he said.
The feedback process is now entering Stage Two, which includes a detailed hydrological study and potential selection of an option to proceed to Phase 3. A decision from the feasibility study expected at the end of 2024.
If a decision is indeed made to proceed to Phase 3, that would spark the detailed design and engineering of the recommended option, and pursuit of all required regulatory approvals. Phase 3 would have an estimated timeline of 2025 to 2030.
A new reservoir could be in operation as soon as 2034.
Once the question and answer part of the gathering began, a variety of complaints surfaced.
Scott Grattidge said he was not a hydrologist or an engineer, and he found the online survey too complex and confusing to get past question two, which brought a round of applause from the crowd.
More applause came for comments like “landowners aren’t the only people who live in the province,” and “They’re creating surveys providing the answers they’re looking for.”
Some asked about further study looking into alternatives to building dams.
Near the end of the two-hour session, one of the audience members asked for a show of hands to gauge support for the two options. Unofficially, the crowd of over 250 was almost unanimously in favour of the Ghost reservoir option and opposed to the Glenbow East option.
There will be two more public meetings in Calgary and Rocky View County next week.
In the 2020 government assessment, the estimated cost for Glenbow East would be $992 million, with Ghost Dam and Morley options at $917 million and $922 million respectively. The Morley price tag doesn’t include land swaps and other possible compensation.
Ryan Fournier, Press Secretary for Environment and Protected Places Minister Rebecca Schulz, in an emailed statement, said the department had done it’s due diligence:
“By any standard, engagement on the Bow River Reservoir options has been extensive and far-reaching. We have been engaging with public and local stakeholders on the Bow River Reservoir options for nearly three years.”
To fill out the survey or get more information go to alberta.ca/bow-river-reservoir-options-engagement.
