Saved water not flowing back to rivers

Saved water not flowing back to rivers

Province doesn’t always hold back when it comes to conservation


September 22, 2011
by Lindsey Wallis
Fast Forward Weekly


The City of Calgary has been telling Calgarians all summer to “do nothing to save water.” The campaign is aimed at conserving water by encouraging people to water their lawns less to “help reduce the strain we put on our rivers.”

But, according to environmental biologist Cheryl Bradley, the water Calgarians save by dutifully refraining from watering their lawns, taking shorter shower and installing (often costly) low-flow appliances, may not be returned to the river for the long-term. “People are told to save water because it’s good for the environment,” says Bradley, who is on the board of the Southern Alberta Group for the Environment. “But whether it is going back into the river, we have no guarantee of that.”

The Bow River sub-basin is closed to new water licences, but studies show the rivers in southern Alberta are already over-allocated. “I’m concerned with the health of our rivers,” Bradley says. “We have licensed parties to take more water than is healthy for the river.”

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