Water News

Alberta Water News is a free, subscription-based service that provides the latest information on water news across Alberta and upcoming events.

The news is distributed weekly on Mondays via a collated email and Monday to Friday via WaterPortal social media (X was Twitter). Please note that news will not be distributed on Holiday Mondays and will be released the following Tuesday.  

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‘Water allocation and priority’: Worst drought in years could lead to Alberta state of emergency

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

Edmonton Journal

“There will be policy or regulatory changes that we can make sooner rather than later just to help give us the flexibility we need to manage the drought that we are anticipating this year”. Click here to continue reading

Lake Diefenbaker water levels up to begin spring

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

Swift Current

Lake Diefenbaker users will be treated to higher water levels this spring as the Water Security Agency charted a different path over the winter months. The Crown corporation elected to cut back its release from southwest Sask.’s largest body of water knowing there might be less water replenishing it than in normal years. Click here to continue reading

Compare and contrast: Many Bengaluru residents consider leaving city as water crisis hits daily life

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

Economic Times

Bhavani Mani Muthuvel and her family of nine have around five 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets worth of water for the week for cooking, cleaning and household chores. “From taking showers to using toilets and washing clothes, we are taking turns to do everything,” she said. It’s the only water they can afford. Click here to continue reading

In B.C.’s forests, a debate over watershed science with lives and billions at stake

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

CBC

Sunshine Coast logging plan highlights divide over best way to assess flooding risk. Click here to continue reading

Compare and contrast: Oregon State researchers take deep dive into how much water is stored in snow

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

Science Daily

There’s a new metric that provides a more holistic look at how much water is stored in snowpack, and for how long. Click here to continue reading

Ontario weakens watershed protections (again) as natural resources minister gets new powers

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

The Narwhal

New rules for conservation authorities reduce buffer zones between development and wetlands and empower Doug Ford’s cabinet to issue permits without their say. Click here to continue reading

Canada, U.S. launch international inquiry into southeast B.C. mine pollution

PUBLISHED: 18 March 2024      Last Edited: 18 March 2024

The Narwhal

Nearly 12 years after Ktunaxa Nation first urged the Canadian and U.S. governments to task an international body with investigating the mine pollution coursing through its territory, the two countries have agreed to a step the nation says is key to addressing contamination from B.C.’s Elk Valley coal mines. Click here to continue reading

Compare and contrast: Mapping water wonders: a groundbreaking leap in hydrology with NDWFI

PUBLISHED: 15 March 2024      Last Edited: 15 March 2024

EurekAlert!

In a significant advancement for hydrological monitoring and water resource management, researchers have developed the Normalized Difference Water Fraction Index (NDWFI), leveraging Landsat imagery and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) within the Google Earth Engine platform. This innovation is pivotal for accurately tracking dynamic and subtle water bodies, crucial for enhancing water security and resilience against extreme hydrological events. Click here to continue reading

Potential drought could affect Albertans at the grocery store

PUBLISHED: 15 March 2024      Last Edited: 15 March 2024

Global News

With the high likelihood of Alberta drought on the horizon, its impacts will be felt by Albertans in many ways. One of those ways is what we choose to buy at the grocery store and what will be available to us. Click here to continue reading

Compare and contrast: A Future of Arctic Rain

PUBLISHED: 15 March 2024      Last Edited: 15 March 2024

The Tyee

In August 2021, rain fell atop the 10,551-foot summit of the Greenland ice cap, triggering an epic meltdown and a more-than-2,000-foot retreat of the snow line. The unprecedented event reminded Joel Harper, a University of Montana glaciologist who works on the Greenland ice sheet, of a strange anomaly in his data, one that suggested that in 2008 it might have rained much later in the season — in the fall, when the region is typically in deep freeze and dark for almost 24 hours a day. Click here to continue reading

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