Brooks Aqueduct
Witness the engineering skill
and sheer determination of Canadian
Pacific Railway's irrigation engineers,
at the Brooks Aqueduct on the
Bow River southeast of Calgary.
The massive elevated canal was
constructed early in the 20th
century to supply water to the
semi-arid lands of southwestern
Alberta. Designed by Hugh B. Muckleston
of the CPR, the canal spanned
a 3.2 kilometre valley, 20 metres
above the prairie. The Aqueduct
was taken out of commission in
1969, in favour of an earthen
replacement canal. |
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Prairie Lifeline: The Eastern Irrigation
District
Some knew it as Palliser's Triangle, named
for explorer Captain John Palliser. But
others called it the "Great American
Desert"-a 1.2 million hectare land
tract in southwest Saskatchewan and southeast
Alberta deeded to the Canadian Pacific Railway
by the Dominion Government of Canada in
1903.
Skeptical homesteaders of the era, clinging
cautiously to the banks of the Bow, could
hardly have imagined the future sight of
corn, sugar beets, potatoes, canola, wheat,
barley and oats stretched far across the
prairie, thriving beneath the wide, life-giving
swath of a sophisticated sprinkler system.
The naysayers can hardly be blamed for their
lack of vision. The CPR's land legacy was
more arid than arable. But the treeless,
sage-bound tract had one potential farming
attribute: the Bow River. Determined to
make the most of the area's water source,
the CPR began construction of Canada's most
ambitious agricultural project.
The Power Fall
The power of the Bow has been
translated into lights, cameras
and electrical action. The beautiful
vistas of the Rocky Mountains
have provided the most beautiful
hydro electrical plant possible.
Scattered throughout the Bow these
hydro electrical plants have the
capability of powering the near
by city of Calgary.
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Dams
and Ducts: The giant Bassano Dam,
began in 1910 and completed in 1914, raised
the level of the river at Horseshoe Bend,
permitting a series of water-conducting
canals and storage reservoirs that transformed
the surrounding prairie into productive
farmland. The Bassano project was supplemented
by construction of the massive Brook Aqueduct,
designed to siphon Bow River water into
the southeastern part of the region.
Early homesteaders, lured
to the area by the CPR's extravagant promises
of rich crops, learned to use the simple,
gravity-driven irrigation systems to their
advantage. During the Great
Depression of the 1930's,
when grain and livestock prices plunged,
a group of the most tenacious farmers formed
a cooperative to take over the irrigation
system from the CPR. Ownership of the system,
all unsold land in the region and a $300,000
cash reserve fund was provided to establish
the Eastern Irrigation District.
Today, the modern Eastern Irrigation District
(based in Brooks, Alberta), provides Bow
River water to an area larger than the province
of Prince Edward Island, irrigating 113,000
hectares of cultivated crop land, and retaining
ownership of almost 240,000 hectares of
native prairie range land. Over a thousand
farms now rely on Eastern Irrigation District
water. The Eastern Irrigation District draws
more water from the Bow than any other single
user, including the city of Calgary.
Water
Pressure:
Together with two other regional water jurisdictions,
the Western Irrigation District and the
Bow River Irrigation District, the Eastern
Irrigation District accounts for 96 percent
of all water taken from the Bow. Proposals
to increase water draws have sometimes led
to controversy, with concern for water quality
and fish and wildlife affected by fluctuating
water levels.
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