Paul Bickford and Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Monday, March 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT and Alberta have agreed to negotiate a bilateral water management agreement that will manage water flowing downstream from Alberta into the territories.

"It's a bit of a milestone," said Bob Bailey, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources, of the commitment to an agreement.

"We believe it's a significant step that Alberta recognizes we are downstream and they need to talk to us," Bailey explained.

Water use in Alberta, particularly by the oil sands projects around Fort McMurray, has been suspected for recent declines of water flow into the NWT.

At present, oil sands are allocated 359 million cubic metres annually by the Alberta government and much of this water comes from the Athabasca River. The Athabasca accounts for 20 per cent of the Slave River's flow rate; the other 80 per cent is from the Peace River and these basin tributaries account for 50 per cent of the Mackenzie River's flow rate.

The bilateral agreement, which will take about three years to finalize, follows from the 1997 Transboundary Waters Master Agreement, which involved the NWT, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C., the Yukon and the federal government. The Mackenzie River Basin Board was formed under that deal.

Jim Vollmershausen, chair of the MRRB, said the NWT/Alberta negotiations are the second such process to move forward under the master agreement. The Yukon and NWT signed their transboundary agreement in 2002.

"There's six agreements to go," said Vollmershausen, adding that due to industrial development occurring in Northern Alberta, it was good things were moving along.

"From a priority point of view, the Alberta/NWT and British Columbia/NWT ones warrant early attention."

Water from eastern Yukon, northern regions of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan eventually flow through the Mackenzie River, ultimately spilling into the Arctic Ocean.

As Slave River levels are at an historic low, many in the territories are concerned of the impact of bitumen-crude oil production south of the border.

In 2005 the Alberta Energy Utilities Board reported 760,000 barrels of oil a day were being produced and it takes nearly the equivalent amount of water to achieve this production level.

While much of the water is recycled, the steaming method of separating oil from sand evaporates much of the water into the atmosphere.

"There's a requirement under the master agreement for parties to determine water quantity and quality (parameters) for water that crosses the boundary and once that agreement is reached, the upstream jurisdiction will be responsible to manage the water," added Vollmershausen.

Among other things, the transboundary deal will contain technical guidelines and objectives on issues such as water quality and volume of flow.

In addition, there will be sections on co-operation and guiding principles, along with how the two sides will discuss issues in a timely and effective manner.Environment ministers Rob Renner, of Alberta, and Michael McLeod, of the NWT, met March 20 and agreed to move ahead with the water agreement.

"It is a resource that knows no boundaries, and we are committed to ensuring that Albertans and our downstream neighbours in the Northwest Territories have access to a healthy and sustainable water supply," Renner said in a news release.

Wetlands and water flows through northern Alberta and the southern NWT are changing and affecting the fish, moose and other life in aquatic ecosystems, said McLeod in the same news release.

"As downstream users, NWT residents need to work co-operatively with Alberta."