Please note that the views expressed herein are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Alberta WaterPortal project.

Laurie Hodson (March, 2010)

Water and Okotoks
Read Laurie Hodson's article on the water challenges facing Okotoks...

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Brad Cabana (January, 2010)

Chateau Lake Louise Waste Water Probe
Read Brad Cabana's article on the Chateau Lake Louise waste water probe...

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Lorne Taylor (September, 2009)

Water Challenges in Oil Sands Country: Alberta's Water for Life Strategy
Read Lorne Taylor's article on what the Water for Life strategy has improved, if anything...

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Mark Bennett (June, 2009)

The Art of the Possible
Read Mark Bennett's article on how the link between mandalas and water is a fundamental one...

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John McDougall (May, 2009)

Water - Minding the Meter
Read John McDougall's article on the need to pay attention to our water consumption...

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Bob Sandford (April, 2009)

The Vital Need for Water Policy Reform
Read Bob Sandford's article on the vital need for water policy reform...

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Melanie Collison (Feb, 2009 - March, 2009)

The "new" oil
Read Melanie Collison's article on The "new" oil (reprinted from Oilweek Magazine)....

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Water.ca (Dec, 2008 - Jan, 2009)

Party like it's 2064
Read Josée Miville-Dechêne's article on "Party like it's 2064"....

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Water Matters (Oct - Nov, 2008)

Land Use Planning for Watershed Health
Managing the cumulative effects of land-use change is necessary for keeping our watersheds healthy. The problem is that there are few incentives for land-use decision makers to address cumulative effects in land-use planning at a regional or watershed scale.

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CAPP (Aug - Sept, 2008)

Water Use by Alberta’s Upstream Oil and Gas Industry
Water is an integral part of oil and gas production around the world, and as Canada’s oil and gas industry grows, so does the demand on Canadian water resources. The challenge facing the industry is to reduce fresh water use while continuing to develop oil and gas reserves.

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Juli Abouchar (July, 2008)

First Nations Water
Across the country year after year, a disproportionate number of First Nations communities have Boil Water Advisories (BWA). The number fluctuates, but as of June 13, 2008, ninety five First Nations communities across Canada were under a BWA. Many of these communities have been on BWAs for years, although BWAs are meant to be temporary measures. Most BWAs are in communities in Ontario and British Columbia, but Alberta has had its share, with 10 Alberta reserves experiencing boil water advisories.

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Dr. Michal C. Moore (June, 2008)

Can't Get No Respect
Water. We can't live without it, yet we waste it with abandon, we mis-price it, inefficiently allocate it, hoard it, corrupt it and refuse to share, just in case we might lose the historic right we have to it. In one of many paradoxical observations, most of the world is covered with water, but only a small fraction of that is useable for agriculture, industry and survival.

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Bill Berzins, President of Fossil Water (May, 2008)

A Growing Debate – The Value of Water
“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” Thomas Fuller could very well have been warning Albertans when he coined this popular phrase in 1732. Indeed, as Alberta’s rapid pace of development places new demands on an increasingly scarce resource, the debate is growing.Alberta’s water market was enabled in the 1999 Water Act and further shaped by the 2006 Water Management Plan for the South Saskatchewan River Basin. The Plan, which placed a moratorium on new allocations of surface water within the Bow and Oldman River Basins, has been a catalyst for an emerging market for water entitlements. Recent applications for a change in purpose by the Western and Eastern Irrigation Districts have attracted the attention of ecological groups concerned that the needs of aquatic ecosystems will suffer as market forces drive up the price of water.

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Tom Huffaker, U.S. Consul General (April, 2008)

As a Californian, I have always known that fresh water is a natural resource that can quickly pass from apparent plenty to scarcity in Western North America. As a Northern Californian, I was weaned on the resentment between the relatively water-rich north and the arid south, to which much Northern water is shipped.

...Let me put it plainly, contrary to persistent rumors, the United States Government does NOT seek and has never sought trans-boundary bulk water transfers from Canada. Nor have I ever seen an economically viable concept for large scale water transfers. We recognize that we have water scarcity and inefficient use problems of our own and that we must solve with our own water resources. We also fully recognize that each country must find its own means of managing those resources.

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