sustainability
By Sheelagh Matthews
CleAn
WATer
WAnTed:
Demands of a growing population
place a strain on supply
IN 1998 THe CITIzeNS of Okotoks voted to become
a sustainable community, one of the first in
Canada, by making a commitment to live within
the carrying capacity of its environment.
A major part of this decision meant living
within the means of its local water resources,
namely the Sheep River.
Fast forward more than ten years, and
the Okotoks Town Council has reaffirmed this
commitment to sustainability — albeit after much
public consultation and debate. Council’s May 2009
decision to maintain its current growth management
strategy, known as The Legacy Plan, means Okotoks will
be able to grow to, but not beyond, existing municipal
boundaries. Based on the Sheep River’s carrying capacity
and the Town’s current water management objectives,
including water conservation practices and policies,
these boundaries will serve a population of about 30,000
people. Okotoks’ current population is just over 22,000.
But, as they often do, the politicians left some
wiggle room in their reaffirmation. If Okotoks can find
additional water solutions, like more water licences
or ways to use water more efficiently, the idea of this
already city-sized town growing beyond its present
borders is entirely possible.
Municipalities have a legal responsibility to provide
residents with potable water. Rick Quail, the municipal
manager for the Town of Okotoks and a director on the
Alberta Water Council, is well aware of this responsibility.
While the path of least resistance is to put water in a
pipeline and have it shipped to Okotoks, an over $200
million notion that was recently bandied about, that’s
not really what sustainability is all about.
“The path to sustainability comes from living within your means,” says Quail. Okotoks has cut water consumption per capita by half in the last decade,”
he adds. Not only that, Quail
claims that Okotoks returns
back to the river about 70 per
cent of the water it withdraws from the river. This 70 per
cent refers to the return of treated wastewater, and does not
include run-off from the storm sewers on streets.
“We want the wastewater that goes back into the river
from Okotoks to be as good or better than the water in
the receiving stream,” explains Quail. Unfortunately,
Alberta’s water licence system doesn’t reward this good
environmental behaviour, something that Quail thinks needs
to change.
Dawn Heffernan, Environment and Sustainability Co-ordinator for the Town of Okotoks, confirms that Okotoks is
already at its water carrying capacity with a population of
about 22,000 using 333 litres per person per day. While that
number is low for Alberta, it is high globally. “We need to be
at 312 litres per day per person in order to accommodate
a population of 30,000,” says Heffernan. For the record, the
environmentally efficient Drake Landing homes average
“The path to
sustainability
comes from
living within
your means.”
