Archives for April 2018

 

Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
[email protected]
April 18, 2018

During this time last year, local farmer Colten Bodie was seeding his land, but this year’s unusual weather and overland flooding will cause delays. He estimates about 40 per cent of his farmland in Lethbridge County is underwater.

While in the short term overland flooding in local districts is a threat to infrastructure and property, for farmers the recent flooding means losing a good portion of their spring seeding season.

“The flooding has been pretty substantial,” says Colten Bodie, one of several farmers near Wilson Siding dealing with flooding at the moment. “The frost is still in the ground, and being that we have had so much snowfall, nothing is soaking in and everything is running off. We do have some land where the water isn’t draining away or is draining onto our land. There is going to be a couple hundred acres we can’t seed because of it.”

Bodie says his family started seeding by April 22 in 2017, but May 22 might not be an unrealistic start date this year, depending on how things go weather-­wise the next few weeks.

“Based on temperature, soil and the amount of water we have on the ground, we are a couple weeks away yet,” he said. “And it will be interesting to see where we end up. Me and a couple of buddies are actually taking bets on when we are going to start. We’ll also have to see what we can and cannot seed on the dryland acres, where a lot of that water is flowing into our land.”

On a more positive note, irrigated acres are substantially easier to drain, says Taber Irrigation District manager Chris Gallagher, but the irrigation season will definitely be delayed as TID works to clear out ice-choked canals.

“We have not yet set a start-up date,” confirmed Gallagher. “That means farmers have got lots of water on their land, and it’s going to be a delayed start-up (for seeding). We do understand there are some crops that do need early water, especially sugar beets and canola, and we know there is going to be some demand to have water sooner. But we are indicating to them we expect to be delayed this year, and to expect that seeding will need to be delayed also. They should be checking with us to confirm start-up dates for water supply before they seed.”

TID has obtained permission to allow its members to pump out standing water in their irrigated acres once canal flows return to stable and manageable levels.

“Our major focus is getting free-flow to the river so we can safely match our (rising) reservoir levels,” Gallagher states. “The next step then is to address our farmers who have ponded water on their fields. We have obtained a blanket approval from Alberta Environment so that any TID member on our assessment rolls can obtain written permission from us to start pumping across their (irrigated) fields into our works. We are looking at maybe a week from now we will be able to start pumping out those fields where needed. We can’t start pumping out those fields until we are sure our canals can handle it.”

Gallagher says it has been a challenging spring for all local irrigation districts, but he hopes the flood concerns will soon recede and their farmers can get back into their fields before too long.

“For our district we are now kind of out of the woods for inflow unless the forecast changes. The vast majority of the snow that was on the land has melted. The ground is still saturated, however, so sometimes we do find some diurnal cycles where when the temperature gets up during the day the water starts to seep out of the soil and then into our canal systems. But we are not finding the surges we had previously.

“However,” he cautions, “we know our neighbours to the east and to the north are still having some issues (in Vauxhall and Bow River Irrigation District). We are working with them to take some of their water into our Horsefly reservoir to relieve some of the pressure as that water moves east.”

Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter

Follow @LethHerald on twitter

---

 

Dave Mabell
April 18, 2018
Lethbridge Herald

[email protected]

While southern Alberta crews continue the battle against overland flooding, officials have issued warnings about additional dangers.

Landowners who depend on cisterns and wells which have been flooded are being warned not to use the water – but to consider it contaminated. Owners are, meanwhile, being asked not to pump water off their land if it’s likely to affect their neighbours adversely.

The “local state of emergency” has been lifted in Lethbridge but remains in effect in the hard-hit M.D. of Taber.

In Taber, M.D. officials have given notice to anyone who moves or alters barricades placed to keep drivers out of danger. Police may lay charges, they point out.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here who has seen this kind of overland flooding,” says Derrick Krizsan, chief operating officer for the M.D. “We have about 100 roads closed.”

Apart from damaging homes, buildings and roadways, he points out the floods will mean a serious delay in spring planting.

“Specialty crops here are usually planted by May 1.”

Water levels have been dropping in the municipality’s southwest corner, Krizsan reports – good news for producers in the Barnwell and Cranford areas. But there’s still plenty of snow to melt in the M.D.’s northern areas – Hays, Enchant and Vauxhall – as well as east to Grassy Lake.

That could take three to seven days to melt.

“It’s really quite variable.”

And there are still ice jams in the St. Mary River Irrigation District’s main canal east of Taber, he adds.

As soon as conditions are dry enough – and the threat of more flooding has passed – Krizsan says the M.D. will be sending gravel trucks and graders to repair damaged roads.

Both the county and the MD are posting updated lists of road closures on their websites.

The M.D. has also issued a heavy load ban, restricting trucks to 75 per cent of their usual load on gravel routes to reduce damage to their water-softened road structure.

A mandatory evacuation order had been considered a possibility around Taber, but officials say that won’t likely be required. Some rural residents left their homes voluntarily, however.

In Lethbridge, county officials say the situation was improving Tuesday.

No new road closures were announced since 9 a.m. Tuesday and floodwaters were receding “in most areas of concern.”

Some county roads remain closed, however, and drivers are advised to use caution on roads that have been softened or are covered with water.

County officials also remind residents who have flood damage to document that damage with photos, dates and details for their insurance company.

Alberta Health Services also offers information for residents affected by floodwater, at https://myhealth.alberta.ca/alberta/pages/What-do-i-do-if-my-private-water-well-has-flooded.aspx

Follow @DMabellHerald on Twitter

Follow @LethHerald on twitter

---

Colette Derworiz
CBC News
Posted: Apr 08, 2018 7:40 PM

Provincial officials are keeping a close eye on creeks and streams across Alberta as temperatures start to rise.

During last week’s monthly snow survey by Alberta Environment and Parks, all of the river basins across the province still had higher than average snowpacks.

“In the mountains, there is a little bit more snow than average,” said David Watson, a river forecast engineer. “We’d say above average to much above average.”

In southern Alberta, he said the Oldman River basin is about 144 per cent of average. The Bow River through Calgary is around 120 per cent, while the Athabasca River north of Edmonton is around 130 per cent.

Although the snowpack is higher than average across Alberta, Watson said the immediate concern is in low-lying areas on the prairies.

Calgary’s Bow River is higher than average this year.

“The plains snowpack is a little bit of a different animal and impact than the mountain snowpack,” he said. “It’s a little bit untypical to have a remaining plains snowpack this late in the year, especially in southern Alberta.

“We’ll be closely watching how the weather unfolds in the next couple of weeks and even in the next couple of days.”

With longer days and a forecasted temperature swing, Watson said that snowpack could melt faster than usual.

“There could be a lot of overland ponding in low-lying areas, ditches, areas where people have typically noticed areas to be wet in the spring.”
Snowpack only one factor

Watson said creeks and streams could also see some minor flooding, but officials don’t expect larger rivers such as the Bow or Athabasca to be affected in the coming days and weeks.

Both he and other experts noted that snowpack is only one factor determining droughts or floods across the province.

In June 2013, when major flooding swept through southern Alberta, heavy rain fell on top of a high snowpack in the mountains.

More snow expected for Taber, as floods leave town under state of emergency.

John Pomeroy, a University of Saskatchewan hydrologist who studies snowpack in the Rockies, said there isn’t a major concern — yet.

Weather stations at Sunshine and Lake Louise in Banff National Park and in Kananaskis Country are recording average to above-average snowpacks.

“They are above, but they are not a record,” said Pomeroy, noting many of those areas saw record-high snowpacks last spring.

Despite the big snowpack in 2017, he said much of the snow melted early and then led to a record drought later in the summer.

Pomeroy said the long-term forecast is still calling for a cooler spring, which means the snow in the mountains will likely melt slower this year.

“Rainfall is necessary to cause flooding and we would not expect large rainfalls until later May and into June,” he said.

Yet, he noted that everything could change with one bad storm.

“With a changing climate, we can experience unprecedented weather extremes so it is important to stay vigilant.”

---