A Water Legacy Betrayed [Calgary Herald op-ed, Feb 1]
by Kevin Van Tighem
Ralph Klein announced in 1991 that Alberta would join the Canadian Heritage Rivers network. As an angler, he understood and shared the deep attachment we Albertans feel to our rivers.
Our major rivers arise from springs and small creeks in the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies. Those mountains and foothills yield well more than 80% of our water.
Peter Lougheed knew that the Rockies are vital to our water security. In the late 1970s his government brought in an Eastern Slopes Policy and Coal Development Policy. Both put watershed protection first in any land use decisions along the Eastern Slopes.
Protecting those mountains was not only a visionary approach to keeping our water supplies secure — it also provided Albertans with opportunities to camp, fish, hunt and enjoy the outdoors amid some of the finest scenery anywhere in Canada.
It was a brilliant legacy.
The problem with history, though, is that leaders like Klein and Lougheed get left behind, and new people step up — many of whom don’t appreciate the importance of strategic decisions made by their predecessors.
That may be why our current government now seems to want to open coal mines in our mountains and foothills. It makes no sense, considering that the importance of a secure water supply only becomes more urgent each year. Our farms, communities and economy can survive without coal mining. But they absolutely depend on water from those mountains.
The visionary water policies of Lougheed and Klein aren’t out of date — just the opposite. They prepared us for a water-stressed future — the one we’re in.
Yet the government of Danielle Smith seems willing to throw it all out even though they have no mandate to promote coal mining. In the run-up to the 2019 election, even though they were already cutting deals with coal lobbyists, coal wasn’t in their election platform. We elected them without knowing they would cancel Lougheed’s coal policy.
Albertans rose up on our high legs and forced the government to bring the coal protections back. And so, in the 2023 election, we thought that our mountains were safe again. But once again, safely back in government, they have announced plans to open our headwaters to coal mining.
This in spite of their own survey showing over 70% of Albertans want our mountains and water protected.
Why? It can’t be jobs. An audit of BC mines found that for every hundred jobs the coal industry promises, only 12 are delivered.
Meantime, the water flowing from those mountains sustains thousands of jobs in Alberta’s agri-foods sector — jobs that will be at risk when new mines shrink our water supply and pollute it with selenium. Every coal mine in Canada releases selenium at levels unsafe for trout and other aquatic life. Even the now-closed mines near Hinton, classified as fully reclaimed by the Alberta government, are still releasing toxic amounts of selenium into the habitat of endangered species.
Coal promoters say that coal is necessary for the steel making industry. But there is no steel industry in Alberta — and foreign steel plants have other sources of coal that won’t compromise our water supply.
Politicians assure us that “world class monitoring” will track any impacts from coal mines. That’s a non-solution: monitoring does not stop pollution. Monitoring simply quantifies how stupid it was to allow it in the first place.
That’s what BC has learned from its coal mines. Their monitoring shows that even multimillion dollar water treatment plants have failed to stem increasingly severe selenium pollution in waters flowing to the USA.
Alberta’s coal mine pollution wouldn’t flow to the US. It would flow to Canadian farm fields, feed lots, swimming pools and drinking water taps.
Our mountains and foothills have enriched our lives and provided us with good water for generations. In a water-short region with a fast-growing population, their protection is critical.
Lougheed and Klein knew that. That’s why they chose to keep our mountains, foothills, and rivers safe for future generations.
It’s a legacy that Danielle Smith’s government should honour — not betray.
Don't worry the UCP will put in a monitoring program like this one:
https://www.alberta.ca/oil-sands-monitoring-program
So Albertans can watch selenium build up and fish with tumours etc. just like in Minister Brian Jean's Athabasca watershed.
Fort Chipweyan's dock is polluted with oilsands toxins according to a Transport Canada report.
With Federal and Provincial governmental environmental care, concern and action like this; WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG IN THE OLDMAN BASIN?
Can I please attach this to emails to our Alberta politicians?
I am greatly concerned about our water supply and the beauty of our mountains.
Our Premier cried about the terrible Forrest fires in Jasper last summer, and rightfully so. What will be her response once her and her parties decisions and actions result in horrible and irreversible damage?