Calgary’s flood mitigation efforts are more robust than ever
Posted Jun 15, 2022 7:57 pm.
Last Updated Jun 16, 2022 9:35 am.
The City of Calgary is no longer under a rainfall or flood warning, avoiding fears that parts of the city could be damaged by high water levels.
Now with the worst seemingly behind us, the city says its flood mitigation infrastructure did its job when it came to preventing flood damage.
“The more permanent infrastructure we have, the less we have to respond,” said Frank Frigo, the manager of Watershed Planning and Water Resources for the City of Calgary.
A lot has changed in the city since the 2013 floods, for example, an improved storm forecasting platform, flood barriers in at-risk areas, and gates added to the Glenmore Reservoir.
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“These new gates roughly double the storage capacity we have available for flood attenuation and that allows us to take small intermediate-sized floods into the reservoir and control the outflow to non-damaging flow rates downstream,” said Frigo.
Mother nature also gave some leeway, as rainfall amounts were lower than anticipated and some moisture in the mountains came down as snow.
“The fact that that snow came as part of that event actually limited the amount of liquid water which was available for runoff and limited the flows that occurred downstream,” said Frigo.
With the worry of flooding seemingly out of the way, some are looking at another aspect of water management.
“It’s not just the infrastructure but the response capabilities, we have so many more levers to pull in 2022 than we did in 2013,” said Kim Sturgess, CEO of WaterSMART Solutions Ltd.
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“When the rain comes down, it’s not just about being concerned about the flood, it’s also about replenishing the reservoirs,” said Sturgess.
Sturgess says everything went according to plan, and now the focus should look at maintaining water amounts for producers.
“Some of the infrastructure projects that’ve been talked about in the irrigation modernization program are exactly that—how can we continue to hold that water in our system to be able to deal with that inevitable drought situation,” said Sturgess.
The city says that additional water storage capacity – if used correctly in combination with forecasting systems — can ensure some longevity to the area’s water supply.
