Roughly a dozen irrigation projects in southern Alberta are moving forward with provincial funding, through the irrigation modernization project and the Irrigation Rehabilitation program.
Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, RJ Sigurdson, says the benefits of the selected projects moving forward include the improvement of irrigation efficiency and effectiveness. Sigurdson says the Irrigation Districts have worked together in the past to support the entire province and continue to do so with this work.
“The water-sharing agreements that they agreed to last year were essential for distributing water across all of southern Alberta – and it’s because of situations that we have seen in the last three years that our government recognizes that we have to start looking at irrigation more seriously as a critical infrastructure piece, especially for the agricultural industry and the growth in the agricultural industry,” Sigurdson says.
Of the projects moving forward, is a partnership between the St. Mary River and Raymond Irrigation District to upgrade the Chin Chute. The work will include both the Chin East and West damns. General manager for the St. Mary River Irrigation District David Westwood says the $19 million the province has put into the Irrigation Rehabilitation Program is what has made this project possible.
“This is a critical component of the infrastructure in the St. Mary irrigation project, the Chin reservoir supports up to 400,000 acres of agriculture irrigation and water for many communities downstream of Chin,” Westwood says.
Other projects include work near Vauxhall to replace Bow River Irrigation District infrastructure and multiple Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District projects.
According to Sigurdson, some of these projects are part of a previously announced $933 million chunk of irrigation modernization project funding.
