Officials of six river parks and the Town of Cochrane have reason to rejoice the Alberta government's decision to pursue relocating the Ghost dam instead of the Glenbow East option for flood and drought mitigation on the Bow River.
Rebecca Schulz, minister of Environment and Protected Areas, announced the decision today (Sept. 25), wrapping up the feasibility phase of the project.
The government determined relocating the Ghost dam would cost less and would have a lesser impact on the environment, property and infrastructure, while providing comparable water storage to the Glenbow East option.
"The Glenbow East option posed higher risks to downstream communities during construction, including Calgary," states the government release. "Its earthfill dam would also be more susceptible to erosion and failure during large flood events compared to the relocated ghost dam, which is a concrete gravity dam."
The Glenbow East option threatened six Bow River Parks, including the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, as well as Cochrane.
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"We're definitely celebrating today, but it's not the end of the work, it's just the beginning," says Jerome Farkas, Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF) executive director.
"We were really thrilled to be able to engage with the premier, Minister Schultz as well as our local MLA on this and every step of the way we wanted to be solution finders," says Farkas. "We didn't want to step in the way of a solution for Calgary, but we wanted to support Ghost because firstly, it protects both Cochrane and Calgary, rather than sacrifices Cochrane for the sake of the city, plus there's just the value of keeping the promise to not just the Harvey family or the Haskayne family, but to the people of Alberta that these incredible parks would be protected."
He says the decision allows the foundation to move forward with a long list of ambitions.
That includes acquiring more land, building an outdoor leadership school, and completing the trail connection to both Calgary and Cochrane.
"We're growing at an incredible rate in terms of the population here in southern Alberta. Soon it's going to be a million visitors per year coming to our park and we want to make sure that we have the services, that we have the trails, we have the infrastructure we want to build out that connection to Cochrane."
"We're already a shining jewel in the Trans Canada Trail and this just goes to prove that what we're building here matters."
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In May 2017, the Bow River Working Group recommended the completion of three conceptual assessments of three major reservoir options on the Bow River. The option of establishing a new reservoir between Seebe and Mini Thni was deserted after being rejected by the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
An alternatives assessment was also conducted to determine if something other than a new reservoir could provide equivalent flood and drought protection. None were found to capable of providing the water storage necessary to mitigate impacts from both floods and drought, without significant issues related to Treaty rights, environmental impacts and regulatory challenges.
The project now transitions to Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors for the engineering and regulatory approval phase.
TransAlta officials have declined to comment on the government's decision.