Athabasca County council is seeking more support from landowners adjacent to a proposed swale between Krazy Creek and Skeleton Lake before providing a letter of support for the project.
The Skeleton Lake Stewardship Association (SLSA) presented at the May 31 county council meeting to explain its proposed project, which aims to improve the declining water levels of Skeleton Lake through an inter-basin water transfer using Krazy Creek. The association sought a letter of support from Athabasca County after applying to Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) for the transfer, but county council instead voted to have administration gather more information on the project.
Deputy Reeve Warren Griffin said he wants to see support for this project from landowners not on the swale route who may be affected and expressed concern about how the transfer might affect the Athabasca water basin.
"I need a lot more information by a lot more accredited people to tell me this is in the best interests of the greater region and all the water basins," Griffin said during the meeting. "I'm nowhere near that yet."
SLSA president Brian Curiel and vice-president Don Johnston presented to county council before county council discussed a motion. The presentation highlighted the decline in the lake's water levels since 1997, with the lake hitting a new low point in 2017.
Curiel said the decline can be explained by all the human development that has occurred around the lake.
"We don't want to finger point or blame anyone, it is what it is. But man-made development has had an impact and we feel we need to have a man-made solution to help the lake recover," Curiel said during the presentation, adding the association has spent approximately $500,000 to fund 20 studies into the lake.
Curiel said SLSA has worked with AEP and recently submitted an application to AEP for a swale connecting Skeleton Lake to Krazy Creek in the north. SLSA has also got support from the three landowners along the proposed route, Curiel said, as well as a letter of support from the Village of Boyle after making a similar presentation to village council May 16.
"We want to improve communications, we want to ensure anybody that has any interest knows what we're doing," Curiel said. "We want to build relationships and get support."
However, Curiel said the SLSA still has to gather feedback from other affected landowners.
"That's part of our job we have to do going forward is consult with everybody that might be impacted," Curiel said.
County council voted unanimously in favour of a motion by Coun. Travais Johnson to have administration gather current hydrology data from SLSA, information on the application process for inter-basin transfers and any reports on consultations with affected landowners, with the information being forwarded to a future county council meeting.
Coun. Christi Bilsky said she wants to see SLSA gather support from more landowners, see what they have in writing from the three landowners along the route and the evidence SLSA has about the proposed route not having any negative downstream impacts.
She added she hopes the provincial government does its own research into the project and the landowners it might impact.
"I hope and would like to trust the government does all its homework to make sure it sees who's affected and how it works," Bilsky said. "They must do their own homework."
