With work on the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1) expected to wrap up, and the site fully operational this year, a Calgary group hopes the province expedites work on Bow River flood options.

The Calgary River Communities Action Group (CRCAG), a local flood mitigation advocacy organization, released a position statement this week, calling on the province to advance flood protection on the Bow River.

According to the CRCAG release, the SR1 completion provides flood mitigation protection on the Elbow River, but “the Bow River remains dangerously under-protected.”

The group is calling for rapid advancement through engineering and regulatory approvals (Phase 3) for the relocated Ghost Reservoir option. That project was selected in 2024 over other options, and advocacy from groups focused on the preservation of the parkland area west of Calgary.

They would also like to see the protection standard for the Bow River evaluated with 800 m3/s as the maximum peak allowable flow. CRCAG also said that the province’s Water Storage Opportunities Study looks at alternatives that can provide triple benefits like water storage, power generation, and flood protection. 

Finally, they’d like to see the province’s flood mapping reflect current infrastructure, including the Modified Operations Agreement with TransAlta, upstream of Calgary.

CRCAG co-president, Brenda Leeds Binder, said that they wanted to time this release in conjunction with the completion of the SR1 project.

“We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the Bow River remains unprotected. Yes, there is work ongoing. It’s moving at a fairly slow pace, being 12 years out from the (2013) flood,” she told LWC.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested by all three levels of government in the years after the devastating Calgary flood of 2013. Upstream Bow River flood mitigation remains a gap in the flood protection, according to CRCAG.

More options, more protection

Leeds Binder said that even with an expedited Ghost Reservoir relocation, it doesn’t fully protect Calgary communities.

“We would like them to continue investigating and evaluating additional options, and we think some of that work can happen in conjunction with work they are undertaking right now to look at water storage across the province,” she said.

“I think that holistic view is really important to keep in mind when they’re undertaking those types of studies. There is still flood risk on the Bow that needs to be mitigated, and are there solutions that provide water storage, for water security that could also, in tandem, be used for flood mitigation.”

In terms of flood mitigation undertaken by the City of Calgary, Leeds Binder said that much of it has been done to protect vital infrastructure and not as much around the protection of homes and small businesses. They are supportive of the work that’s been done, however.

“They were primarily to address public infrastructure, which makes perfect sense, and again, is beneficial to Calgarians, but it didn’t address the problem for residences.”

Currently, the City of Calgary has the Sunnyside flood barrier work in progress. It’s a lengthy berm along the Bow River to help protect the homes and businesses in the Sunnyside and Hillhurst areas. Once complete, it’s expected to protect against a 1:100-year flood.

Leeds Binder said their group would also like to see the province’s updated flood mapping include the potential water flow held back by TransAlta through a series of power generation and flood protection operations. It’s governed by a Modified Operations Agreement, which expires in 2026, according to the province’s website.

She said that right now flood mapping doesn’t include water flows that could be potentially held back by these operations. CRCAG said that these policies harm property owners in flood-affected communities.

The province told LWC that current flood maps intentionally don’t include flow reductions from TransAlta Ghost Reservoir operations. They said they want communities to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

“Our provincial flood studies typically use naturalized flows for flood mapping downstream of a reservoir/dam. This means we model a reservoir/dam passing along the flow it would naturally receive during a flood without any of that water being held back or diverted,” read a response from Environment and Protected Areas press secretary Ryan Fournier, to questions posed by LWC.

“If a new water-storing reservoir is built on the Bow River in the future, we would absolutely include it in updated flood maps.”

It’s well past a reasonable timeline: Leeds Binder

Given that we’re 12 years past the 2013 Calgary and southern Alberta flooding, and potentially more than a decade before construction begins on a relocated Ghost Reservoir option, Leeds Binder said something needs to be done to move the process along faster.

“You’re more than two decades out from the flood and there’s very much a risk that you will have a flood over the following decade, like over the next 10 years.  A one-in-200-year flood means like one 200 sort of chance every single year. But if you look at that over the span of a decade, it’s actually almost a 10 per cent risk.”

The province’s posted timeline on the Ghost Reservoir project estimates the engineering and regulatory approval process to be eight years. Procurement, construction and commissioning would be another four years.

To people downstream on the Bow River, it means potential damage to homes, businesses, and even lives lost, said Leeds Binder.

“I think we’re well past a reasonable timeline,” she said.

“Even in that (Ghost River) scenario, you’re still ending up with a project that actually doesn’t fully mitigate the flood risk. So, I think this really has to continue to proceed with a sense of urgency. It needs to continue to be a priority, and it needs to be accelerated.”

Calgary’s high river flow season goes from May 15 to July 15, according to the City of Calgary. Local river conditions can be found at this website.

For more information on Alberta river flow rates, you can visit the provincial website.