Water storage adequate for SMRID: Westwood

By Trevor Busch

Commentator/Courier

editor@tabertimes.com

As the St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) prepares for the upcoming season in 2023, things are looking good in terms of water storage. 

“Water storage is great in the sense that we actually went into fall really, really well,” said David Westwood, general manager with the SMRID. “And so we were happy with our winter storage levels. We’re obviously watching snowpack closely. As we always do this time of year, it’s probably a little lower than it was this time last year. But traditionally, a lot of the snowpack that impacts our watershed coming out of the Rockies, we see a lot in February and March. So we’re obviously gonna see what’s going to happen with spring soon, accumulation and all those kinds of things.”

Westwood detailed some of the infrastructure projects that the district has targeted for action in 2023.

“All of the districts that are participating in the Alberta Irrigation Modernization Program, we’ve each listed out what projects we’ve accomplished. And then we set on the timeline for the next few years. So for this offseason, we’re in the process of completing another eight modernization or pipeline conversion projects where we’re converting open conveyance or open canals into underground pipeline.”