A watershed protection group has launched an action plan to encourage municipalities to take action to protect water quality in the Red Deer River watershed.
Keith Ryder, Red Deer River Municipal Users Group executive director, said the group is trying to take a proactive approach to water-related issues within the Red Deer River watershed.
The watershed stretches across Alberta from it’s headwaters in the mountains west of Sundre and meanders east through communities including Red Deer and more than 30 other municipalities. It’s watershed stretches across Central Alberta.
“One of the main focuses that came up from our membership is the quality of source water,” said Ryder. “This was the impetus for our workshops and the toolkit we’ve put together for all municipalities within the basin.”
The group released a toolkit to protecting source water quality in the Red Deer River Watershed, an 86 page document that identifies threats, and offers recommendations, challenges and observations.
According to the toolkit, the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance assessed the health of 15 sub-watersheds, giving eight of them a fair rating and five a poor rating.
The source water is any untreated water found in rivers, streams, reservoirs, lakes and aquifers.
“By focusing on the protecting of source water, it really lowers the cost for everyone of having to treat it less,” said Ryder. “Everyone is involved in source protection from all industries including forestry and agriculture, municipalities and even the onus is on ourselves to make sure we’re doing our job being careful about what goes into the river.”
There is also a plan to facilitate three workshops later this spring. On April 27 they will be at the Olds Legion and on May 11 they will be at the Lacombe Memorial Centre, a May 4 meeting is scheduled for Hanna. For more information on the events email execdir@rdrmug.ca.
“The main hope is to provide all municipalities in the basin some of the tools needed and the awareness needed to work on source water protection,” said Ryder.
Threats to the watershed and source water include development on sensitive land, groundwater contamination, farm runoff, erosion, pipeline breaks and spills and solid waste disposal.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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