The St. Mary River in southern Alberta. The St. Mary River Irrigation District has increased its 2025 water allocation. Courtesy/Georgialh

By David Opinko

AGRICULTURE

Farmers in St. Mary River Irrigation District allocated 50% more water for 2025

Apr 3, 2025 | 4:26 PM

More water will be available for agricultural producers in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region this growing season.

St. Mary River Irrigation District on Thursday set its water allocation for 2025 at 12 inches, an increase of 50 per cent from last year.

SMRID board chair George Lohues says the initial allocation in 2024 was eight inches as much of the province suffered from droughts. Timely rains in May allowed them to increase that to nine inches.

At the end of the growing season in October 2024, they had accumulated 503,650 acre-feet of storage.

“Our reservoirs look much better going into the new crop,” Lohues said.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Root Cellar receives national accreditation

2h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

New disc golf course set to open in Medicine Hat

2h ago

EASTER

Holy week commemoration at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Apr 09, 2025

“Based on modelling, and storage and snowpack data, the Board is confident that the 12-inch allocation for 2025 is responsible and is in line with environmental realities.”

As of March 28, the City of Lethbridge reports that the St. Mary Reservoir, one of the major reservoirs that feeds the irrigation system, is at 51 per cent of its maximum storage capacity. At the same time last year, it was just 15 per cent.

SMRID General Manager David Westwood says they were among the 19 Alberta Irrigation Modernization projects that were completed in 2023/24, which has led to “impressive efficiency gains” across the district.

The SMRID is the largest irrigation district in North America.

It has over 2,000 kilometres of canals and pipelines, which spans the area from Lethbridge to Medicine Hat and serves approximately 518,000 acres.