Alberta government taking another look at diverting water from Red Deer River

The Alberta government is taking another look at a scheme to divert water from the Red Deer River to parched communities.

The province says the new idea is to pipe water from the river to east-central Alberta, but only during spring run-off when the levels are very high.

The departments of municipal affairs and agriculture have started to study how such a plan would affect the river.

The proposal calls for storing the water from spring run-off in deep, natural ravines that now exist in drier areas of Stettler and Paintearth Counties.

It would then be available for watering livestock, household needs and for possible industrial and irrigation use.

The government says such a diversion would not affect agreements on water flow rates from the Red Deer River into the South Saskatchewan river system.