Preliminary river plan 'feasible'

Preliminary river plan ' feasible' Continued from Page 1A The average flow measured near Red Deer's CP Rail bridge in June for the five- year period through 1988 was 1,620 cubic feet per sec­ond, said Roger Drury of the Al­berta River Forecast Centre. On a normal summer day, the city consumes water at the rate of 15 cubic feet per second, Gordon Stewart, city public works man­ager, said. " The plan at the present time is preliminary because we don't have all the answers," Mr. Grover said of the water transfer scheme. " But all the indications that we have are that it is feasible and we should go ahead with phase two to determine all of the problems that there are." The water resources commission, which less than five years ago held public hearings on the South Sas­katchewan River basin, concluded that the river could support a water transfer plan, Mr. Grover said. And he said initial studies by Al­berta Environment suggest water can be withdrawn at the rate pro­posed without adversely affecting other downstream users. A preliminary engineering in­vestigation and design of a pre­ferred canal or pipeline route will also form part of the stage two study, scheduled for completion in a year. At that point, the committee should be in a position to decide if the proposed water transfer plan is economically and environmentally sound, Mr. Grover said. Although Mr. Grover acknowl­edged the idea could not be pur­sued without the flow regulation provided by the Dickson Dam, he dismissed the notion that irrigation is the main purpose of the plan. " There will be some irrigation for the purpose of raising feed which is in very short supply in the area," he said. But the main goal of the multi­purpose plan is to supply water to the normally dry Berry and Sound­ing Creeks for livestock watering while boosting dwindling munici­pal water supplies and increasing the region's recreation potential. The committee studying the plan was set up late last year when the special areas board and the Prairie Association for Water Manage­ment raised their concerns with several MLAs and cabinet minis­ters who were visiting the area. Ernie Isley, then minister of pub­lic works, supply and services and now minister of agriculture, Glen Clegg, Dunvegan MLA who is water commission chairman, Shir­ley McClellan, MLA for Chinook, and Tom Musgrove, Tory member from Bow River, met with the group. Mrs. McClellan, whose consis­tency takes in the special areas, is a member of the steering committee. " I don't think it is a pie in the sky idea at all," the associate agricul­ture minister said. " I am fully sup­portive of their ( the committee's) work in getting an assured supply of water to stabilize the area." The Prairie Association for Water Management, a nearly four-year- old umbrella group formed to develop water strategies, and the special areas board are also repre­sented on the committee along with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration and Ducks Unlim­ited. An in- office study by Alberta En­vironment identified four possible ways to transfer water south. Three of the alternatives involve digging a 90- km long canal. The least preferred option is a $ 194- mil-lion pipeline from the river just upstream of the Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. The precise size of the canal de­pends on the amount of water it would carry, however, preliminary estimates indicate it could be five metres wide and nearly two metres deep. The most attractive of the three suggested canal alternatives is the Nevis route because of lower proj­ected construction and operating costs. It has an estimated $ 86- mil-lion price tag, including the two- km pipeline from a pumping station at a site at the Red Deer River just east of Ardley. The Big Valley canal route, beginning southwest of the village, carries an anticipated $ 99- million construction cost while the longer Stettler plan would cost $ 104 mil­lion. Mr. Grover said the provincial government would be counted on for most of the construction dol­lars, but argued a drought- proofing plan would reduce the annual bill for provincial drought assistance in the special areas. He said the special areas board has spent about $ 200,000 on its ap­plication to the provincial energy board for a 14.9- megawatt $ 34- mil-lion power station at the Dickson Dam. But approval of the application over rival bids from three private firms would give the water trans­fer scheme added momentum, Mr. Grover said. He said profits from selling the electricity to TransAlta Utilities would be used to cover the energy costs of pumping water from the Red Deer River, thereby making the proposed pumping station self-sufficient.