The PEACH Project is Complete
On January 13th 2010, the Alberta Water Council released its final report, Provincial Ecological Criteria for Healthy Aquatic Ecosystems. The report describes a suite of criteria that can be used to identify those areas of the province that are significant to the maintenance to aquatic ecosystem health. In order to develop these criteria, the Council built on the work of the Provincial Government's Environmentally Significant Areas (ESA) report. More information on the ESA program, including the full ESA report, can be found on the Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation website. For more information on this team and their work, please see the PEACH Project Page.
The Water Allocation Transfer System Review
On Monday, November 23 2009, the Council released the report Recommendations for Improving Alberta's Water Allocation Transfer System. The release of the report coincides with the release of two other related reports, one from the Alberta Water Research Institute and another completed by the Minister's Advisory Group on Water Management and Allocation. All three reports are expected to generate further discussion on the issue of water use as part of a larger process being conducted by the Government of Alberta to complete a detailed review and consultation on water allocation in Alberta. For more information on this project, please visit the WATSUP Team page.
Water for Life Implementation Review
One of the most important roles of the Alberta Water Council is to regularly review the implementation progress of the Water for Life strategy. The Council recently completed its third implementation review, Review of Implementation Progress of Water for Life, 2006 - 2008. The review highlights some of the on-going challenges in the strategy's implementation and recommends several new areas of focus to ensure the Water for Life strategy remains current and relevant to emerging water issues in Alberta. Key themes identified in the review include: (1) the need to better integrate land, air, water and biodiversity management; (2) the need to ensure implementation actions do not outstrip available resources; and (3) the need for leadership across all sectors. More information and the complete report are available on the Water for Life Implementation Review page.