Prairie Forum

PRAIRIE FORUM Vol. 7, NO.1. Spring, 1982 CONTENTS ARTICLES Advances in Water Reuse: Issues for Water Management in Alberta Steve E. Hrudey Protecting the Built Environment of Saskatchewan Marc Denhez 13 Community Leaders in South Western Manitoba Erasmus D. Manu 39 Growth and Change in Prairie Metropolitan Centres After 1951 N. R. Seifried 49 Short-Run Effects of an Inland Terminal on the Grain Handling System and Rural Communities: A Case Study of Weyburn Surendra N. Kulshreshtha 69 RESEARCH NOTES Abandoned Railroads as Potential Habitat Refuges B. de Vries 87 Economic Diversification in the Canadian Prairies A. H. Sahir and A. A. Seaborne 91 The Cost of Making a Farm on the Prairies Irene M. Spry 95 A Reply to Professor Spry's Critique "The Cost of Making a Farm on the Prairies" Lyle Dick 101 Prairie Theses, 1979-80 103 Book Reviews (See overleaf) 119 COPYRIGHT 1982 CANADIAN PLAINSRESEARCH CENTER ISSN0317-6282 BOOK REVIEWS WILSON, BARRY, Beyond the Harvest byH. Cushon 119 DOERN, RUSSEL, Wednesdays are Cabinet Days: A Personal Account of the Schreyer Administration by David E.Smith 120 MITCHELL, KEN, Sinclair Ross: A Reader's Guide by Sherrill Grace. ....................................... .. 122 GOODMAN, LAURA, Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter by Nelson Smith 124 MITCHELL, W.O., How I Spent My Summer Holidays by Catherine McLay. .................................... .. 127 SMITH, D. E., The Regional Decline of a National Party: Liberals on the Prairies by Lewis H. Thomas ... .................................. .. 129 KEITH, W. J. (editor), A Voice in the Land: Essays By and About Rudy Wiebe by Henry Kreisel 131 PRATT, LARRY and GARTH STEVENSON (eds.), Western Separatism: The Myths, Realities and Dangers by George Melnyk ! .0 • · .. 137 MELNYK, GEORGE, Radical Regionalism by Frank Mackinnon 141 DUNAE, P., Gentlemen Emigrants by James Pitsula · .. 144 DOBBIN, MURRAY, The One-and-A-Half Men by A. S. Lussier 146 BARCLAY, BYRNA, Summer of the Hungry Pup by Ahab Spence 147 EAGER, EVELYN, Saskatchewan Government, Politics and Pragmatism by Patricia Marchak · .. 149 WILLIAMS, DAVID, Apocalypse on the Prairie, The RiverHorseman by John E.Oster 150 PRAIRIE FORUM: Journal of the Canadian Plains Research Center Chief Editor: F. Pannekoek, Alberta Culture Associate Editors: J. W. Brennan, History, Regina L. Clark, History, Brandon W. Currie, Native Studies, Saskatoon B. Freeze, Lethbridge Community College G. Granzberg, Anthropology, Winnipeg R. Gruhn, Anthropology, Edmonton M. Evelyn Jonescu, CPRC, Regina W. Latta, English, Lethbridge M. Mackie, Sociology, Calgary F. Mackinnon, Political Science, Calgary Alex Paul, Geography, Reg-ina R. Vogt, Economics, Winnipeg Book Review Editor: Wendy Fraser, CPRC, Regina PRAIRIE FORUM is published twice yearly, in Spring and Fall, at an annual subscription of $15.00. All subscriptions, correspondence and contribu tions should be sent to The Editor, Prairie Forum, Canadian Plains Re search Center, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, S4S OA2. Subscribers will also receive the Canadian Plains Bulletin, the newsletter of the Canadian Plains Research Center. PRAIRIE FORUM is not responsible for statements, either of fact or of opinion, made by contributors. PRAIRIE FORUM, 1982, Vol. 7, No.1 Advances in Water Reuse: Issues for Water Management in Alberta Steve E. Hrudey Department of Civil Engineering, University of Alberta ABSTRACT. Recent international advances in the field of water reuse are briefly reviewed in the context of water resource management in Alberta. Categories reviewed include irrigation, aquaculture, industrial and domestic reuse. Water reuse schemes which are relevant to Alberta, as well as policy constraints and water reuse disincentives in Alberta are considered. RESUME Des progres recemment faits sur la scene internationale dans le domaine du recyclage d'eau sont examines dans lecontexte de I'exploitation des ressources hydrauliques en Alberta. Parmi les categories examinees se trouvent l'irrigation, l'aquaculture, Ie recyclage industriel et domestique. Des projets pour le recyclage d'eau qui sont pertinents al'Alberta ainsi que des contraintes de politique et des mesures decourageantes au recyclage d'eau en Alberta sont consideres. INTRODUCTION Although Alberta has an overall surplus of water resources, the distribution of population relative to water is not optimal (Figure 1).1 The largest percentage of pop'ulation and industrial activity is located in southern and central Alberta, while the majority of the available surface water flows through the unpopulated northern areas of the province. As well, Alberta does not have major groundwater aquifers capable of sustaining large populations or industrial activity. Accord ingly, despite Alberta's relatively small population of 2,300,000 oc cupying 661,000 km-, increasing population and concurrent industrial growth will inevitably lead to water supply limitations for the province in the future. In fact, the primary, if not sole justification for the construction ofa dam on the Red DeerRiver (Figure 1) was to alleviate municipal and industrial water use constraints created by the low flows in this river.? Hence, water reclamation and reuse will become more and more relevant to future generations of Albertans. RECENT ADVANCES IN WATER RECLAMATION AND REUSE Current developments in water reclamation and reuse have recently been reviewed by Hrudey.t Highlights of the review will be considered in the context of those developments most relevant to the situation in Alberta. Irrigation Reuse The major constraint on water reuse for irrigation relates to salinity and resulting soil structure damage. Svenson discussed the problems ofincreasing salinity in the Colorado River due to irrigation return flows.' Such problems require significant improvement in 2 HRUDEY Mean Annual River Discharges 3 774 SOO000 mJ- [) (2 109 300 000 m' Inflowand outflowvalues represent the annual volume. [) 6 611 SOO000 m' Basedon recorded data up to 1977. Total Outflow 135035400000 m3 Totallnflow 67311100000mi o 0 315800 000 m' 1 164 400 000 m' 247 900 000 m' Figure I, (a). Alberta Water Resource Distribution. Reproduced courtesy of "Environment Views," Alberta Environment. ADVANCES IN WATER REUSE 3 Population Distribution 1976 500000 -- 400000 --~----,::oo--__ 300000 _-+~_~__ 200000 _-1--1--+-_..",......_ 100000 --J~-+---:::---. 50 000 --+H--+--+--::---.... 25000 ---- ~-\-+--4--.".......... 10000 -------::~.Ir++....,.......... 5 000 /;=--=--::::::::~~~).~" 2500 / Figure I, (b). Alberta Population Distribution, Reproduced courtesy of "Environment Views," Alberta Environment. 4 HRUDEY irrigation water use practices. Specifically, there is a need to insure that a higher proportion of water diverted for irrigation is actually supplied for optimal crop water demand. Such improvements will reduce saline irrigation return flow. Desalination of irrigation return flow is eco nomically feasible in Saudi Arabia but only as an alternative to desalination of seawater.' Prevention of salinity increases, due to inefficient irrigation practices is a far more viable objective in Alberta. Another major concern regarding water reuse and irrigation has been the possibility of toxic metal contamination where municipal wastewaters are used. Several long term studies have shown that despite higher metal levels in sewage than in alternate irrigation sources, metals (lead, copper, zinc, nickel, chromium and cadmium) did not accumulate in soils or vegetation over more than 20 years of application.s Furthermore, sewage effluent irrigation has been shown effective for forage crop production and has recently been adopted by the City of Cranbrook, B.C. for alfalfa irrigation." These findings are consistent with successful Alberta experience at Taber. However, the large land requirement for sewage effluent irrigation (128 hectares for 5000 population at Taber) makes it attractive primarily for rural communities in the drier regions of Alberta. Secondary effluent irrigation of park and golf courses has been successfully implemented provided that efficient treatment is sustained and disinfection is practiced." Another option for areas already practicing irrigation has been the provision of fresh irrigation water supply to water-limited municipalities in return for adequately treated sewage effluent to be used for irrigation." Industrial wastes have also proven amenable to irrigation reuse. Among the more interesting recent developments were the use of brewery wastewater for sod farm irrigation in the southern U.S. and tree farm irrigation with paper mill effluents in the Pacific northwest.!? Many other industrial wastewaters have been evaluated for irrigation reuse in Alberta, including: meat packing, potato processing, cheese manufacturing, natural gas processing, and, nitro gen fertilizer manufacturing wastewater. II Aquaculture Reuse of wastewater for the generation of useful biomass has received increasing attention in recent years. Systems which have been considered may be generally grouped into natural wetland and controlled environment systems. Burton et al. evaluated an experimen tal lake and spray irrigation system in Michigan. 12 This was supplied with secondary sewage effluent to culture harvestable biomass in the form of aquatic vegetation and forage crops. Sewage effluent charac teristics are compatible with natural wetland ecosystems and their nutrient input is expected to enhance natural productivity of such ADVANCES IN WATER REUSE 5 systems. Potential

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