Working together, moving ahead - Medicine Hat News
January 13 2009
gslade@medicinehatnews.com
Optimistically moving forward by working together was the rally-call for Hatters at the annual State of the City Address.
Mayor Norm Boucher addressed members of the business community at a lunch hosted by Medicine Hat Kiwanis Club and Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
With global walls of economic uncertainty closing in, Boucher called for a focus on partnerships, volunteering and the spending of money to create economic growth.
“If there’s one thing I have learned, or come to appreciate, during my time in public office it is the value of building partnerships. Council can not do this alone,” said Boucher.
City council’s vision includes attracting people and business to the Hat and making it their community of choice.
A key project for 2009 is the regional event centre with, the goal of achieving funding with as little cost to the taxpayer as possible. Boucher said talks continue for funding partners.
The City has confirmed a further three-year mandate for the Economic Development Alliance to foster a strong and diverse economy and continuing to be a part of the Palliser Economic Partnership in alliance with 16 rural municipalities.
Boucher also told the crowd Medicine Hat became part of South East Alberta Watershed Alliance which is assessing water management needs.
2009 SEAWA AGM
January 22 2009
SEAWA's second AGM will be held on Friday, April 17, 2009 with confirmed guest speakers:
Honourable Rob Renner, Minister of Environment, Deputy Government House Leader, vice-chair of the Cabinet Policy Committee on Resources and the Environment, and member of the Agenda and Priorities Committee
LaVar Payne, Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat and past SEAWA federal government board member
SEAWA Website
January 26 2009
Let us know what you think of our new website. Send your comments to the Communications Committee at bob@seawa.ca
Important water issues coming to the forefront - Medicine Hat News
March 14 2009
Alex McCuaig
This past week some Medicine Hat residents have found out what it’s like to be under a boil water advisory, at least for a short time. However boil water advisories are something thousands of Albertans in rural areas have had to deal with for weeks at times, even years.
The breakage of one pipeline in the city on Monday should underscore how fragile our system is and how little Hatters understand about how big our water issues are about to become.
Brooks mayor Martin Shields recently explained how we take this staple for granted. Diamonds, he explained, have little practical use yet have tremendous value. Water is indispensable to life but has no monetary value.
This is going to change — and soon.
New water licences for the South Saskatchewan River Basin have had a moratorium placed on them for years and the value of this commodity is only rising because of the restricted access.
Municipalities – including Medicine Hat – have begun a horse trading exercise using water licence transfers as a currency used to acquire land.
Formed not even a year ago, the South East Alberta Watershed Alliance will act as an advisory council for water issues in our area. But they will be playing catch-up to areas upstream from us who have had their advisory councils in place for years.
Every issue from the building of a race track and mall outside of Calgary to the construction of a new sub-division in Dunmore will have bearing on Medicine Hat.
If climate change leads to a permanent lessening of the supply, upstream plants overload the water with chemicals for treatment or any ecological catastrophe occurs, our location will see us bear the full brunt of the fallout.
We are last in line for this commodity in this province and for that reason we should be the first in line to discuss issues happening upstream.
Shared Water and Shared Opportunities
March 19 2009
Shared Water and Shared Opportunities
Amanda Stephenson
World Water Day, March 22, is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, designed to celebrate and raise awareness about the planet's fresh water resources.
The theme of this year's World Water Day is "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities," with a focus on transboundary water. Worldwide, there are 263 rivers and lakes that cross borders - these water bodies include the territory of 145 countries and cover nearly half of the Earth's land surface.
As population growth and development puts increasing pressure on these limited water resources, some people have predicted a future of strife and conflict. But according to the organizers of World Water Day, over the last 60 years there have been more than 200 international water agreements and only 37 cases of reported violence between states over water. This year's theme is meant to continue to promote co-operation and sharing when it comes to water resources.
To celebrate World Water Day 2009, events are being held all over the globe.
In Medicine Hat, the film "Flow: For the Love of Water" will be shown at the Medicine Hat Public Library on March 24.
Everyone can do their part
March 20 2009
Everyone can do their part
Amanda Stephenson
If the future of the planet's fresh water is something you care about, there are plenty of things you can do on an individual level to protect and conserve this valuable resource.
The City of Medicine Hat, for example, has a number of tips and tricks to help residents both conserve water and protect water quality. On the city's HatSmart website, www.hatsmart.ca, you can read suggestions such as installing low-flow showerheads and toilets, using phosphorus-free detergents and limiting the use of salt to de-ice sidewalks and driveways. Community Environmental Grants are also available from the city to help support projects that significantly reduce residential water consumption.
"Water is a limited commodity, and I think like any natural resource we need to treat it with respect and conserve where we can," says Frank Wetsch, general manager of Environmental Utilities.
Wetsch says in the Medicine Hat area, water is less a problem of supply and more a problem of infrastructure. The less water a community uses, the less need there will be to enlarge the capacity of the community's water treatment infrastructure, and the less energy will be required to operate the water treatment system.
That is why Wetsch is a big supporter of water-saving habits such as the use of underground sprinklers, which target the roots of the plants being watered instead of throwing water onto sidewalks and down gutters. He is also a fan of xeriscape gardening, which uses drought-tolerant and low-maintenance plants to reduce the amount of water required. Both the city's Environmental Utilities department and Medicine Hat College have brochures available with more information about xeriscape gardening and classes on the topic are offered through the college's Continuing Education department.
Another way people can get involved is by becoming a member of the Southeast Alberta Watershed Alliance (SEAWA). The organization is one of nine Watershed Planning and Advisory Committees that have been created across the province to assess and manage the health of local watersheds. One of the first projects the organization will be working on is a "State of the Watershed" process, which will bring together as much information as possible about the South Saskatchewan River Basin. Executive director Bob Phillips says SEAWA is actively seeking new members.
"We're trying to get balanced representation from all sectors so our management plan will balance environmental, social and economic interests," Phillips says.
SEAWA's annual general meeting will be held April 17, with nine board seats up for election. The seats are open to existing and new board members.
Note: See our AGM and Watershed Agenda for more information http://www.seawa.ca/membership.php The AGM will be held from 10 am to 4 pm at the Medicine Hat Stampede and Exhibition.
Growth and prosperity of region dependant on water
March 20 2009
Growth and prosperity of region dependent on water
Amanda Stephenson
Five years into the province's Water For Life strategy, Environment Minister Rob Renner says the government is introducing new strategies that will continue to make Alberta a world leader when it comes to freshwater management.
"Frankly, I'm not sure the average person realizes there is a need to talk about water-related issues as long as they can turn on their tap and the water comes out," Renner says. However, he added a comprehensive strategy such as Water For Life is necessary not only to ensure safe drinking water and a healthy environment, but to ensure there is enough water available to sustain future growth.
"If the province did nothing, I think the future would clearly be a severe restriction on further growth and severe restrictions on economic opportunities in southeast Alberta - and that's something we simply can't allow to happen," Renner says.
In November, the results of a review of the province's Water For Life program were made public. Among the findings of the Alberta Water Council, the multi-stakeholder partnership that conducted the review, was the conclusion that while Alberta has made good progress toward improving the safety, security and quality of drinking water and other water supplies, more needs to be done to ensure the province has healthy aquatic ecosystems.
To that end, the province is developing a new Wetlands Policy that will replace the existing interim policy dating from 1993. The province has also allocated $100 million over the next several years for the construction of numerous regional water and wastewater treatment facilities. Renner says not only will this provide better, more reliable sources of water to Alberta communities, but improved water treatment will result in improved water quality in river systems.
However, Renner says one of the most exciting new directions the province is pursuing is a new form of water allocation. This is necessary because many river systems, including the South Saskatchewan, are currently maxed out with no new water licenses available.
"That means if we're going to continue to have growth and economic prosperity in our region, we're going to have to figure out a way to share the water that's available and maximize the use of that water," he says.
This does pose challenges, Renner admits.
"I think that there will inevitably be issues we have to deal with around the entitlement that people feel toward water," he says. "When we talk about sharing water, that's very positive if you're on the receiving end . . . it may not be quite as positive if you're on the sending end."
But Renner insists water-sharing doesn't have to be a win-lose situation, adding the province is looking for opportunities to advance the cause of conservation and increase efficiency, thereby freeing up water licenses for new users.
"The one constraint in the overall system is the amount of water we have," Renner says. "What we are not constrained by is the way that we manage that water."
The New Oil
March 20 2009
The New Oil
Amanda Stephenson
Perhaps the average person doesn't think about it when they turn on the tap. But for municipal planners in this part of the province, the knowledge that water is a limited commodity is never far from their minds.
"Water for every municipality is probably one of the top priorities and one of the biggest issues they have to deal with," says Redcliff town manager Kim Swanson. "Especially in the southern part of the province where it's in limited supply."
In fact, there are no more water licenses available for the South Saskatchewan River Basin, which means any plans for future growth and development must work within the confines of existing licenses.
"I was at a seminar recently where they were calling water 'the new oil,' " says John Komanchuk, development and infrastructure commissioner for the City of Medicine Hat. "It's the new buzzword."
The water issue has taken a central role in the Intermunicipal Development Plan currently being negotiated between the City of Medicine Hat, the town of Redcliff, and Cypress County. The final draft will include guidelines that will govern any future expansion of the City of Medicine Hat into Cypress County land - and one thing the county wants is a guarantee about water.
Currently, the county purchases water from the city to service the hamlet of Dunmore, but as Cypress County municipal planner Jeffrey Dowling explains, the existing infrastructure has reached its capacity. Unless a new pipeline is constructed, Dunmore will be unable to handle any more residential or commercial development.
"We've reached our maximum allotment that the city provides for us, so right now Dunmore is at a standstill until we can provide more water," Dowling says.
That is why Cypress County has made a new watergate agreement between the city and the county, one that would provide for a new pipeline so that the county can purchase more water from the city, a condition of its participation in the Intermunicipal Development Plan.
"If that watergate agreement doesn't get signed between our municipality and the City of Medicine Hat so we can acquire more water, then we have no reason to sign the Intermunicipal Development Plan and allow it to pass," Dowling says.
For the Town of Redcliff, the biggest concern is the community's water treatment plant. The facility has already exceeded its lifespan, so the town is in discussions with the City of Medicine Hat and Cypress County regarding the possibility of joining together in a regional water system. The provincial government has been pushing the regional concept, with the goal of reducing the number of water treatment plants in Alberta from approximately 250 down to about 150. The idea is that larger regional plants improve efficiency, and also make it easier for communities that may be struggling to find the trained staff required to run water treatment facilities.
With these kinds of challenges facing them, municipalities are trying to create incentives for water conservation while at the same time keeping water rates affordable for residential and commercial customers. It's a tricky situation, but Swanson says one bright side is the fact that public awareness seems to be on the rise.
"One of the things that's been shown in numbers and trends is that even though there's been growth in the population, there's been reduction in the use of water," Swanson says. "So people are aware, even on their own, that water is an important and precious natural resource and they need to conserve."
Nomination Forms and AGM Agenda
March 22 2009
Check out all the new information under Membership for our Director Nomination Forms and a full Agenda for the April 17, 2009 Annual General Meeting and Watershed Workshop.
Regarding Water Video Conference
March 29 2009
Regarding Water Video Conference Click for details and join Peter Wallis, Dean of Business at Medicine Hat College (and Chair of SEAWA's State of the Watershed Committee) and SEAWA's Executive Director when they talk about Water Parasites and WPACs.
SEAWA 2008 Annual Report
April 18 2009
The 2008 Annual Report is now available online under "Newsletter". This is a large pdf file.
SEAWA receives Government of Alberta core funding
May 14 2009
The Government of Alberta, Department of Environment, announced new core funding for SEAWA. See the Prairie Post article for more details.
Environment Week May 31 to June 6, 2009
May 31 2009
Hazardous Waste Drop Off, Solid Waste Stream Reduction, Commuter Challenge, Xeriscape Garden Tours, Highway Clean-up, Farmers Market. Celebrity Cook BBQ, Peter Puffin performances, Free Films at the Library, Energy Conservation Seminar at City Hall, World Environment Day and SEAWA (and other) displays at the Esplanade. Something for everyone - join us and learn how you can do your part. 2009 Environment Week Schedule of Activities
Commuter Challenge Day
June 03 2009
Join your neighbours in the watershed for the Commuter Challenge Day Wednesday June 3rd, 2009. What will move you? Walk, Jog, Cycle, Take the Transit, or Car Pool: commuter-day-challenge
Youth Range Daze 2009
July 14 2009
SEAWA is helping sponsor Youth Range Daze 2009 from July 14 to 16. This exciting event held at Police Outpost Provincial Park includes a trail ride and campfires; and learning about riparian plants and animals, and rangeland and watershed management.
Click image to read details.
TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
September 19 2009
Join us and help cleanup one of the three sites around Medicine Hat: TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
UpStream Quarterly Summer 2009
September 28 2009
Check out what SEAWA has been doing this summer and see Lorine Marshall's new column on her favourite water conservation tip. Upstream Quarterly Summer 2009 Newsletter
Pronghorn migration covers huge distances
November 07 2009
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Pharmaceuticals in our Water Supplies
November 08 2009
Are “Drugged Waters” a Water Quality Threat? University of Arizona - Arizona Water Resource Newsletter July 2000 Developed to promote human health and well being, certain pharmaceuticals are now attracting attention as a potentially new class of water pollutants. Such drugs as antibiotics, anti-depressants, birth control pills, seizure medication, cancer treatments, pain killers, tranquilizers and cholesterol-lowering compounds have been detected in varied water sources. Where do they come from? Pharmaceutical industries, hospitals and other medical facilities are obvious sources, but households also contribute a significant share. People often dispose of unused medicines by flushing them down toilets, and human excreta can contain varied incompletely metabolized medicines. These drugs can pass intact through conventional sewage treatment facilities, into waterways, lakes and even aquifers. Further, discarded pharmaceuticals often end up at dumps and land fills, posing a threat to underlying groundwater. Farm animals also are a source of pharmaceuticals entering the environment, through their ingestion of hormones, antibiotics and veterinary medicines. (About 40 percent of U.S.-produced antibiotics are fed to livestock as growth enhancers.) Manure containing traces of such pharmaceuticals is spread on land and can then wash off into surface water and even percolate into groundwater. Along with pharmaceuticals, personal care products also are showing up in water. Generally these chemicals are the active ingredients or preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries or fragrances. For example, nitro musks, used as a fragrance in many cosmetics, detergents, toiletries and other personal care products, have attracted concern because of their persistence and possible adverse environmental impacts. Some countries have taken action to ban nitro musks. Also, sun screen agents have been detected in lakes and fish. Researchers Christian G. Daughton and Thomas A. Ternes reported in the December issue of “Environmental Health Perspectives” that the amount of pharmaceuticals and personal care products entering the environment annually is about equal to the amount of pesticides used each year. Concern about the water quality impacts of these chemicals first gained prominence in Europe, where for over a decade scientists have been checking lakes, streams, and groundwater for pharmaceutical contamination. American officials and scientists are taking note, with two recent U.S. professional organizations — the National Ground Water Associations and the American Chemical Society — addressing the issue at their annual meetings this summer. The issue emerged in Europe about ten years ago, when German environmental scientists found clofibric acid, a cholesterol-lowering drug, in groundwater beneath a German water treatment plant. They later found clofibric acid throughout local waters, and a further search found phenazone and fenofibrate, drugs used to regulate concentrations of lipids in the blood, and analgesics such as ibuprofen and diclofenac in groundwater under a sewage plant. Meanwhile other European researchers discovered chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics and hormones in drinking water sources. In the United States, the issue might have attracted earlier notice if officials had followed up on observations made 20 years ago. At that time, EPA scientists found that sludge from a U.S. sewage-treatment plant contained excreted aspirin, caffeine and nicotine. At the time, no significance was attached to the findings. In Phoenix about this time another event occurred that also might have alerted officials that pharmaceuticals could pose a water quality threat. Herman Bouwer of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service in Phoenix recalls that clofibric acid was found in groundwater below infiltration basins that were artificially recharging groundwater with sewage effluent. Bouwer says more attention should have been paid to the finding; if clofibric acid could pass through a sewage treatment plant and percolate into the groundwater so also could many other drugs. Europeans, however, took the lead in researching the issue. In the mid-1990s, Thomas A. Ternes, a chemist in Wiesbaden, Germany, investigated what happens to prescribed medicines after they are excreted. Ternes knew that many such drugs are prescribed, and that little was known of the environmental effects of these compounds after they are excreted. He researched the presence of drugs in sewage, treated water and rivers, and his findings surprised him. Expecting to identify a few medicinal compounds he instead found 30 of the 60 common pharmaceuticals that he surveyed. Drugs he identified included lipid-lowering drugs, antibiotics, analgesics, antiseptics, beta-blocker heart drugs, residues of drugs for controlling epilepsy as well as drugs serving as contrast agents for diagnostic X rays. Results of recent research in North America also indicate reason for concern. At the June National Groundwater Association conference, Glen R. Boyd, a Tulane University civil engineer, reported detecting drugs in the Mississippi River, Lake Ponchetrain and in Tulane’s tap water. Boyd and his team found in tested waters low levels of clofibric acid, the pain killer naproxen and the hormone estrone. Samples of Tulane’s tap water showed estrone averaging 45 parts per trillion with a high of 80 parts per trillion. At the recent American Chemical Society conference, Chris Metcalfe of Trent University in Ontario reported finding a vast array of drugs leaving Canadian sewage treatment plants, at times at higher levels than what is reported in Germany. Such drugs included anticancer agents, psychiatric drugs and anti-inflammatory compounds. North American treatment plants may show higher levels of pharmaceuticals because they often lack the technological sophistication of German facilities. The U.S.G.S. is currently conducting the first nationwide assessment of “emerging contaminants” found in selected streams, including the occurrence of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, sex and steroidal hormones and other drugs such as antidepressants and antacids. One hundred stream sites were identified, representing a wide variety of geographical and hydrogeological settings. Four of these sites are in Arizona: Santa Cruz River at Cortaro Road; Santa Cruz River near Rio Rico; Salt River below 91st Ave. sewage treatment plant; and Gila River above diversions at Gillespie Dam.
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| Book Finds Reasons for Concern Because the endocrine disruption question has surfaced so recently, the scientific case on the extent of the threat is still far from complete. Nevertheless, if one looks broadly at a wide array of existing studies from various branches of science and medicine, the weight of the evidence indicates that humans are in jeopardy and are perhaps already affected in major ways. Taken together, the pieces of this scientific patchwork quilt have, despite admitted gaps, a cumulative power that is compelling and urgent. (from Our Stolen Future, by Colborn, Dumanoski and Myers) |
