Water: The Gift of Life or The Demented Demon
Calgary’s not the only city that lives in the middle of the Bow River Basin. We live on a very high-water table and there are advantages to that but there are also some consequences as well – remember the flood of 2013 that only lasted two days. There were five deaths, 10,000 people evacuated, and it cost the city $8 billion! Flood mitigation projects in the city continue to this day; a drive along Memorial Drive beyond 14 Street NW is one of the examples!
From the headwaters at Bow Lake in the Rocky Mountains, the Bow River flows through Banff, Canmore, Cochrane, Calgary, and the land of the traditional territory of Treaty 7, and the home to the Metis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. The Bow River is named “Ijathibe Wapta” in Cree which means “where people made bows out of the Saskatoon saplings for their bows for hunting”.
Other major centres within the basin include Okotoks, Chestermere, and parts of Airdrie and Strathmore.
The water eventually flows to the Hudson Bay and then onto the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
Whew! It’s immense and drains an area of 25,000 km2; it is a hard-working basin serving approximately 45% of Alberta’s irrigated land. The basin also has 15 major dams and weirs.
You might ask yourself why people would decide to build a city and many towns in the middle of such a huge water basin. Well, the rivers and the waterways were the highways for the Indigenous for millennia and the early settlers. We do know that the Indigenous peoples who used this land loved the Confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers and thought it was the perfect place to gather. And 35% of Alberta’s population loves to live here too! This is a precious place and learning to share the land with this volume of water takes great expertise and genuine care.
I’ve been known to canoe down 26 Street after one of our usual June rains and then come home to 4’ of water in the basement – ugh! The story goes, and it may not be true, but is certainly local lore that when Dave Bronconnier was mayor, his aunt lived in the ‘hood’ and she apparently complained often to him about her flooded basement. Signal Hill was being developed at the time and the removal of vegetation, and the development of thousands of roofs and miles of asphalt also added a complicating factor for Killarney. Sometime after that the Killarney dry pond construction began.
It’s been a gift to the community: little kids learn to play soccer, it’s a convenient cut though for older kids getting to school on time, and a beautiful place to behold in the neighbourhood. I notice that realtors advertise it as a benefit to the community. And best of all, it catches our June rains that can be overwhelming for the ordinary drainage systems in the city. I’ve never seen it even close to full; the most I’ve seen is water pooling in the grass; proof of the efficiency that the four drains work exceptionally well. Rain and/or hail could overwhelm the system, and the dry pond is there to protect us.
There is also a drainage system just in case it’s needed. Between the playground and the tennis court is the emergency overflow. If the pond overflowed, the water would go overland to 28 Avenue – I’ve never seen the need for the overflow in my time in Killarney.
I’ve spent time talking to the Water Services Foreman who is assigned to the South Calgary Storm Infrastructure within the City of Calgary and the rigour with which the City pays attention to mega rains, is astonishing.
The theory works even in our home which is built four feet below grade, and we have a mini dry pond in our backyard, it’s called a French Drain or a Weeper Pit. Essentially, it’s a plant planted in the middle of the patio that directs water to the basement where there is a sump pump and it works like a dream – we’ve never had water in the basement, only when the occasional person who lives here (me) forgets to turn off the water in the Conservatory!
The dry pond is an exceptional gift to the neighbourhood as protection from big rains, a place to play, and as a place of beauty for everyone to enjoy!
The map of the Bow River Basin is complements of the Bow River Basin Council, a charitable organization representing individuals and organizations that share a common vision that the water resources in the Bow Basin are our lifeline and are to be conserved and protected.
Photo Credit: Lorne Kingwell
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