Shutoff dates for irrigation districts back to normal after coming early in 2023

Southern Alberta Newspapers

Irrigation districts in southern Alberta have announced more typical shutoff dates this fall compared to an early end of delivery in 2023, and say they should be in better standing heading into the 2025 season.

The St. Mary River Irrigation District will shut down deliveries on Oct. 4, it announced, while the date in the Eastern Irrigation District is Oct. 10.

Each are about two weeks later than in 2023 when the districts moved to bolster levels in reservoirs heading into the winter months in the third week of September.

“Although the combined storage for SMRID Reservoirs is below average for a non-drought year, conservation efforts in 2024 have resulted in higher storage levels than at the end of the 2023 irrigation season,” reads a bulletin to members from board chair George Lohues for late August.

“The reduced allocation this season will result in much-improved winter storage levels and optimism for a less stressful irrigation season in 2025.”

Levels on the combined SMRID system sat at 68 per cent full on Aug. 29, according to SMRID officials, up from 31 per cent at the same time in 2023.

The difference represents an additional 310,000 acre-feet in storage. One acre-foot is equal to 1.23 million litres.

In 2023, SMRID had to reduce allocation from 15 inches to eventually 13, then put in a one-quarter restriction at the end of the season before a Sept. 22 shutdown.

This year the allocation was halved to just eight inches for the spring, but was raised to nine after well above average rain dominated the season.