The Saskatchewan River is an important element of water management in Medicine Hat. Stanislav Moroz/Dreamstime.com

By Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat, Brooks and southeastern Alberta on track to avoid severe drought, experts say

Jul 31, 2024 | 12:50 PM

Medicine Hat, Brooks and much of southeastern Alberta is on track to avoid severe drought conditions and the mandatory water limits that would come with them, experts said as a July dominated by high temperatures comes to an end.

Downpours in May and June helped the province chart a course away from the extreme conditions and towards a more manageable, stable path for cities, towns, farmers and irrigators, according to three experts who spoke to CHAT News.

Trevor Hadwen, an agroclimate specialist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said southeast Alberta is in a better position than it was in 2023.

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“We’re in a decent position, especially for agriculture at this point of year,” Hadwen said.

A cautious and proactive approach taken by municipalities and the province has also helped with water reserves, he explained.

“The entire province is still being very cautious in terms of water use because of the conditions that we were going into in the spring and its made a world of difference in terms of ensuring that we have the water available for our industries and for our personal use,” Hadwen said.

Water levels of the Saskatchewan River in Medicine Hat have been fluctuating over the past several days, numbers the City of Medicine Hat is watching closely.

Greg Paxman, the city’s manager of water and wastewater treatment, said that, while the current river levels are higher than last year, he expects it to decrease soon.

Greg Paxman, manager of water and wastewater treatment, hopes the City of Medicine Hat will not have to move to mandatory water restrictions. Kevin Kyle/CHAT News

“The reservoir levels are starting to drop because that mountain runoff and the snowpack in the mountains is depleted now,” Paxman said.

“It’s expected to get to the levels that they were forecasting early in the spring before the precipitation,” he added in reference to the spring showers that provided relief to a dry southeast Alberta.

The rain pushed back the dry conditions that could make up most of August. That’s created enough of a buffer that restrictions may not be necessary, Paxman explained.

“Being higher than we were last year, I am very hopeful that we’ll stay in Phase 1,” he said.

Medicine Hat has avoided drought classification by the federal drought monitor since April, when it was considered under a “severe drought” status. Brooks has remained under the status of “abnormally dry”.

Graphic/CHAT News

Hadwen expects that Medicine Hat could return to a dry ranking when the map is updated for July.

‘Normal operating procedure’ in Brooks

Brooks is within the Eastern Irrigation District.

The district pulled back from its drought plan Stage 2, which limited water intake for the irrigators to 18 inches per acre, on July 23.

Now, under Stage 1, irrigators are able to accept 24 inches of water per acre at any point of delivery, with the option of purchasing an additional four inches.

It marks a contrast to the position the district was in a year ago when it started the summer limiting irrigators to a maximum of 12 inches.

In 2023, snow that supplies much of the water in a season to Alberta’s rivers from Rocky Mountains melted away so early that the Eastern Irrigation District could only watch on with already-full reservoirs, according to an official.

Ryan Gagley, assistant general manager of engineering and operations, explained the irrigation district is back to “normal operating procedures.”

“We’re fairly confident that we have a strong river and enough in our reservoirs that we should not have a problem supplying that amount of water for this season,” Gagley said.

‘Could use the rain’

Despite the relatively stable conditions the southeast corner of the province finds itself in, experts say more rain would help see it through to the end of the summer.

“We certainly could use the rain to finish off the season,” Hadwen said.

Hadwen said the next drought conditions status update is likely to be released at some point next week and paint a broader picture of where the region is headed.

As for the future of water accessibility, Paxman hopes a large snow pack develops in the Rocky Mountains so that there’s enough to avoid severe conditions in 2025.

“Hopefully we get through this year, and next year we can get some snow in the mountains and be in a better state next year, too.”