Prairie Creek Water Diversion
December 2021
A friend called and told me of a water diversion underway at the bridge a mile from his home on Prairie Creek SW of Rocky Mountain House. So, my wife and I went for a drive.
Prairie Creek is located close and
I’ve fished the stream many times in the fifty plus years we’ve lived in Rocky
Mountain House. It was the first stream where I did any onstream work.
In about 1972,
I planted several thousand willow shoots along the bank in an
attempt to stabilize the erosion. This project was several hundred yards
downstream of the big spring
which is located 2 kilometres downstream of the December 2021 Diversion.
Prairie Creek has never been exposed to a diversion of this size before and it is hoped that the public will see that it should not happen again.
Streams such as Prairie Creek are common all along the
eastern Slopes, from the Little Red, James, Fallen Timber, Baptitest,
Nordegg, Elk, Dismal north to the Yukon Border.
These streams cover most of the shale gas plays in Alberta and all could be subjected to the same abuse.
If you are concerned, please spend the time to write to one
or more of the people in the letters below. Please CC any correspondence to your MLA.
Back to the Diversion:
Driving west from Qually’s Corner on RR #380 we saw the Frac Water tanks filled and iced over
and about a kilometer west was the location
where the diversion occurred.
About 2 kilometers west of there on RR #380 an active Frac was taking place utilizing a fresh water source located 40 kilometres west on the Ram River
just upstream of the N. Saskatchewan River confluence.
This tour was described in a letter written January 13, 2022 to Jason Nixon, Alberta Minister of Environment and
Parks. There is a link to the letter below,
As a result of further info gathering another letter was
written January 28, 2022 to Minister Nixon. and other link below
The information gathered included:
1] The Alberta Government Document “Surface Water Allocation
Directive” issued February 2019
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/9781460143339
2] Graph covering April 1 > November 1. 2020 from the
Alberta Environment and Parks – Alberta River Basins for the Prairie Creek
Meter Station 05DB002
showing water flows.
3] The letter written to Jason Nixon in January 28, 2022 which described
the failures in the process of calculating the maximum water withdrawals, the concerns
of using footlhills
streams for water diversions and a request to stop water diversions in small/midsized streams.
4] Telephone conversations were held with Alberta Water Resources Hydrologist and the area Hydrologist for Alberta Energy Regulator in a vain attempt to figure out why
the Divewrsion location was rated a Class 5/6 stream.
In addition to letters of concern to the Alberta Government, emails and letters were sent to:
1] Alberta Energy Regulators - email
2] Dept of Fisheries and Oceans – Edmonton [ email] and Sarnia District office for Ontarion & Prairie Region [email and letter]
3] Sonya Savage, Energy Minister – email
4] Dept of Fisheries and Oceans – Letter to the Minister February 6, 2022 Prairie%20Creek%20Support/Fisheries1.html
Copies below of:
1] The letters written:
a] Minister Nixon January 13, 2022 Prairie%20Creek%20Support/Nixon%20letter%201.html
b] Minister Nixon January 28, 2022 Prairie%20Creek%20Support/Nixon%20Letter2.html
2] Copy of the Permit Prairie%20Creek%20Support/Permita.htm
3] Information on Company acquiring the Diversion Permit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKN_Orlen#History
Regards,
Don Andersen