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River water monitoring boosted

The question of how the Red Deer River is faring will be helped out with another monitoring station in Central Alberta.

The question of how the Red Deer River is faring will be helped out with another monitoring station in Central Alberta.

The latest one was added just upstream of the bridge at Sundre in October.

The decision to put it in comes following a report that was released in August.

The Red Deer River Watershed Alliance’s report on surface water quality suggested that more monitoring needed to be done to maintain the watershed for years to come.

All stations will develop long-term quality data.

Other monitoring stations are at Red Deer near Fort Normandeau, at Nevis towards Stettler, the Morrin bridge past Three Hills, at Jenner in Eastern Alberta, and the federal government monitors at Bindloss in Southern Alberta.

Chris Teichreb, regional water quality specialist with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, said on Wednesday that he’s wanted to see a monitoring station at Sundre for a while.

It represents an area that is not affected much compared with other monitoring stations, where they may be downstream of communities that are discharging or where there’s a large amount of agricultural work being done.

“So Sundre represents a best scenario of conditions for the Red Deer River,” said Teichreb. “Over the long term, any changes will be due to natural changes rather than manmade changes.”

The other monitoring stations are in parkland or grassland areas whereas Sundre’s monitoring station is in the foothills area.

“This is a project (at Sundre) that we’re looking to have implemented for two years and then re-evaluate,” said Teichreb.

“The other stations will continue to monitor (permanently).”

The monitoring is a critical part of gathering information for the alliance, which represents about 400 members that includes the City of Red Deer.

The alliance is a multisector, non-profit organization promoting the good use and proper management of water within the Red Deer River watershed.

The August report is the first of several reports that will be done to create a fully integrated watershed management plan. It will identify problems, plus recommend solutions benefiting the community, economy and environment.

Alliance executive director Gerard Aldridge said a draft report on land use, another component of the watershed plan, will hopefully be done by mid-November.

The public will have the chance to weigh in on the report when it’s posted to the website at that time, he added.

Public meetings will be held, as well as an online survey.

The watershed management plan is expected to be done in March 2014.

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com