OLDS — Town of Olds' chief administrative officer Brent Williams is “pretty sure” the town will have to “develop something new” to cope with another anticipated drought this year.
Williams made that observation during a town council meeting in recent weeks in response to a letter to municipalities from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz.
He suggested administrative staff might propose some plan to that effect to council in a couple of months or so.
In her letter, Schulz said Alberta has five stages in its water management plan, ranging from Stage 1, a minor drought, to Stage 5, a province-wide emergency.
She wrote that the province is “currently in Stage 4” as a result of little precipitation last year which led to very low water levels in much of Alberta.
Given that fact, and predictions the province could be heading for another drought at least as bad as last year’s one, Schulz said the provincial government is working on strategies to be ready for this year’s drought.
She called on municipalities to do the same. That includes developing a water shortage plan to ensure the community can respond if “water availability decreases.”
Coun. James Cummings picked up on that letter.
Cummings noted that last month he had brought back a report from the Red Deer River Municipal Users Group about what he called “the inevitable drought that we’re going to be seeing in 2024.”
He said Schulz’s letter confirms that the province is anticipating a drought as well.
“I’m just wondering if we already have in place a policy for a situation like this or is this something that administration is going to have to develop from scratch,” he asked.
Williams said as part of the requirements for a licence to obtain water, every municipality has to have a plan in place for what happens if the community experiences a disruption in water availability.
Williams said that plan already exists, but some research will likely be needed to determine what will be needed for this expected drought, which he said appears to be more climate-related than a water “disruption.”
“I think it will be largely mimicking what we have already in our water licence application with AEP (Alberta Environment and Parks),” Williams said.
However, he said the town will likely have to be more specific about what the restrictions will be, how they’ll be phased in.
Williams said details will need to be worked out on how the shortage will affect municipal infrastructure like the splash park as well as homeowners who want to water their lawns.
“Council will be seeing some variations of that in the next couple of months,” he said.
Coun. Heather Ryan said during an Alberta Municipalities session on water and drought that she attended, Okotoks representatives noted they got better buy-in on water restrictions from residents when they called the plan water ‘conservation’ rather than ‘restrictions.’
She suggested Olds might want to use the same terminology to get good buy-in as well.
Coun. Dan Dayley liked that strategy.
He recommended making the public aware of an anticipated drought “sooner rather than later, so that some of this can be maybe mitigated a bit right off the bat.”
As part of efforts to conserve water, Daley suggested urging residents to shovel snow from sidewalks onto areas that can absorb water, like their lawns, rather than the street.
Mayor Judy Dahl agreed, expressing sympathy for what a drought could mean for the Olds Golf Club as well.
