Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The City of Calgary says it has moved its drought monitoring dial to dry from normal. It says the decision is based on tracking of precipitation levels, reservoirs and lake levels, stream flow rates in the rivers and water demand. "Despite the moments of intense rainfall through July, our monitoring team continues to see impacts of this year's dry conditions across Calgary and the region," Sarah Marshall, the city's water resources planner, said in a statement.
The beginning of June in Calgary has been hot and dry, and that could have an affect on the city’s water supply through summer. Environment Canada and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says Calgary has come into the summer season with dryer than normal conditions — spring 2023 ended as the fifth driest spring on record.
“Typically, modern irrigation can decrease demand, but we found that after some years demand may paradoxically increase,” said Mohammad Ghoreishi, first author of a paper, Peering into agricultural rebound phenomenon using a global sensitivity analysis approach, published in Elsevier’s Journal of Hydrology. “Due to modern irrigation, many farmers can switch to higher value crops and expand irrigation acreage to increase profits, which can increase agricultural water demand,” said Ghoreishi, a PhD candidate at the School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) and a researcher at USask’s Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS).
As the upgrade of Glenmore Dam draws to a close, NCEexplores how the Canadian structure has evolved to help reduce flood risk, while increasing its water supply capacity. Canada’s Glenmore Reservoir has become an important landmark in the city of Calgary, providing clean water, flood mitigation and a recreational setting for locals. The 3.8km2 reservoir is formed by a concrete dam, which has been the focus of a C$81M (£46M) improvement project. Approximately 320m long, Glenmore Dam is located on the Elbow River in south west Calgary. The structure was originally built in 1933 to supply drinking water and enable the city to cater for future population growth.
