The earliest irrigation developments in the province consisted of ranchers diverting water, from the smaller streams to adjoining native meadow lands, to grow winter feed.
The first recorded irrigation scheme was developed in 1879 when a settler named John Glenn constructed an irrigation ditch, which diverted water from Fish Creek to irrigate six to eight hectares of native hay meadow.
During the following years, numerous small projects were developed throughout southern Alberta. These efforts demonstrated the value of irrigation and indicated the probability of extensive water use of for irrigation in the future. Also apparent was the need for a governmental authority to control this resource, to avoid any jurisdictional and legal problems which could arise without it. As a result, in 1894, the Parliament of Canada passed the Northwest Irrigation Act.
The act also provided for an elected board of trustees, with the power to levy municipal taxes to support the operation and maintenance of user-owned irrigation projects.
In 1931, the Irrigation Act was
superseded by the Water Resources Act.
This act followed the 1930 transfer of
jurisdiction over natural resources (including water)
from the federal government to the provinces.
However, to insure that western waters were
developed on a system basis and that upstream
users would not use water to the detriment of
those downstream, the provinces of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta formed the Prairie
Provinces Water Board in 1948 to oversee the
any such activities.
Subsequently, Alberta was allocated 2,759,585
cubic decametres of water to irrigate 508,490 hectares.
In 1968, all former acts governing irrigation districts were repealed by the Alberta government and replaced by a new Irrigation Act. This act updated administrative and operational procedures of the districts. Two years later, the province established a program to assist irrigation districts with the rehabilitation of their capital works, whereby the districts would contribute 14 per cent and the Province 86 per cent. Until 1977, the provincial funding for this program was $11 million, divided on an irrigated area basis among the 13 irrigation districts in the province. The related engineering and agrologic services were also provided without charge by the province to the districts.
In accordance with revisions made to the Water Resources Act in 1975, water use for irrigation had been given priority over industrial, power or recreational use and is third in water allocation behind domestic and municipal use.
The first might be called the company built or commercial phase, which lasted until about 1920. Under this phase, large land grants were provided to railways to finance construction. It was assumed that after settlement, land sales would provide them with operating revenues. It was obvious to the owners of rail companies that if the lands were irrigated they would increase in value and be densely settled.
Consequently, to facilitate
the development of irrigation projects, the government
changed its land grant policy with the railways from the
grid system to a new en-bloc system. The only incentive
for the early development of the present day Bow River
Irrigation District by financial entrepreneurs would
appear to have been the
anticipated return on capital investment.
The second phase could be called the district phase. This developed after the Irrigation Districts Act was passed in 1915, when farmer-owned-and-operated projects were established under the supervision and guidance of the provincial government.
Finally, there was what might be called the government-developed phase, which began after World War II. At this time, both the provincial and federal governments accepted direct responsibility for the establishment of new developments and the expansion and maintenance of older schemes.
In 1973, the Alberta Irrigation Rehabilitation project was signed and PFRA began repairing and renovating 4 major structures in existing irrigation districts. These include Carseland Weir, Brooks Aqueduct, Western Irrigation District Headworks, and Bassano Dam. The St. Mary and Bow River irrigation projects were transferred to the Province of Alberta on March 31, 1974. All the rehabilitation work was completed by 1990 and structures were turned over to the Province.
Irrigation districts account for 84% of Alberta's irrigated land. Each district is cooperatively owned by the water users and operated by an elected board of directors. Each district is responsible for operating and maintaining a secondary network of canals, reservoirs and pipelines to deliver water to the field. The following condensed history of the development of the13 irrigation districts in the province, all located within the South Saskatchewan River basin illustrates the evolution of irrigation in Albert until 1979.
| Irrigation District | Water Source |
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| St. Mary River Magrath Raymond Taber Western Eastern Bow River Mountain View Leavitt Aetna United Lethbridge Northern Ross Creek |
St. Mary River Belly River Waterton River S.M.R.I.D. Main Canal S.M.R.I.D. Main Canal S.M.R.I.D. Main Canal Bow River Bow River Bow River Belly River Belly River Oldman River Ross Creek |
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