The webinar examined recent amendments to the Water Ministerial Regulation, situating them within the broader context of Alberta’s focus on water availability. The core amendments centred on expanding exemptions from Water Act approval and licensing requirements across several categories, including dugouts, stormwater drainage storage, borrow pits, and firefighting and related activities. A new definition of dugout was introduced, tying the exemption specifically to agricultural and household purposes, which raises important questions about how existing uses that fall outside that definition will be treated going forward.
The central concern raised throughout the presentation was not the concept of exemptions itself, but the cumulative and systemic risks of expanding them. When diversions are exempt from approval processes, there is no requirement to notify the government, no monitoring obligation, and no formal mechanism to track whether adverse effects are occurring. The qualifier that exempt diversions must not cause an adverse effect on the aquatic environment or other users was examined closely, with the presenter noting that the threshold sits in an ambiguous middle ground more than trivial, but less than significant, leaving considerable uncertainty about how compliance is assessed and enforced. The broader concern is that as exemptions expand, the province’s ability to manage water as an interconnected system, particularly in drought conditions, becomes increasingly strained.
Questions Asked by Attendees
- Is there any documented evidence of dugout owners currently using water for purposes other than those now defined, who could suddenly find themselves in noncompliance?
- Do the changes require additional environmental monitoring to determine whether an adverse effect is occurring?
- Are water conservation objectives and instream objectives used to determine adverse impacts on the aquatic environment?
- Have there been many water management orders issued historically?
- With the expansion of exemptions, will there be more compliance review to ensure they are properly applied?
- If dugouts are no longer permitted for construction purposes such as pipeline work, could this push applications toward more natural water bodies?
- Is there an accepted definition of water efficiency?
- Is there a possibility of water license transfers occurring outside areas with approved water management plans?
- Do most jurisdictions with licensing structures similar to Alberta’s also have exemptions?
- How does the province quantify exempt water use to make informed decisions about supply and allocation?
- Does the new definition of dugout restrict oil and gas operators from applying for temporary diversion licenses from those dugouts?
Rewatch the webinar here.
Cover Photo: North Saskatchewan River, east of Edmonton, Alberta. Credit: Wallace Bentt via Unsplash.