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County to hire environmental co-ordinator

Lacombe County has created a new staff position to oversee efforts to develop a comprehensive environmental plan.

Lacombe County has created a new staff position to oversee efforts to develop a comprehensive environmental plan.

Terry Hager, the county’s commissioner, said an environmental co-ordinator is expected to be hired within the next two months. The co-ordinator will then begin consultation with county residents to begin developing the plan.

The project recognizes that the county’s day-to-day operations and its decisions have an impact on the environment and that those impacts can be minimized with sound planning.

“We’ve been looking to do some further work with our agricultural community with respect to watersheds and working closer with groups like the Medicine River Watershed Society,” said Hager.

The county also wants to take a proactive approach on environmental issues and develop an environmental policy that would help provide direction on planning and operational issues, road construction, and how water and waste water are handled.

“It’s similar to a health and safety program where it’s sort of all-encompassing. We would like to see an environmental program that is all-encompassing.”

“We see this as something that is going to be critical to success in the future.”

The policy is not meant to provide a new set of regulations on top of those already overseen by Alberta Agriculture or the Natural Resources Conservation Board.

The plan is expected to take more than a year to develop and will involve extensive community consultation.

An emergency management system will be designed to implement it.

The plan is expected to become part of county operations in 2014.

pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com