Water Register
  • Intelligence
  • Tools
  • Transfers
  • Guides
  • Pricing
  • Open Dashboard

Alberta water intelligence

Why irrigation districts hold more water than they appear to

Count versus volume

On a chart of licence counts, irrigation districts look minor, around 3% of the provincial export. Among licences that report a volume, irrigation holds about 44% of provincial allocation.

Senior priority and return flows

Many district licences carry priority dates that predate post-2006 municipal transfer purchases by decades. Return flows change the real number: the export reports allocation at the point of take, not return-flow fractions.

District governance

Outbound district transfers can require a Section 82 ratepayer referendum above regulated thresholds, plus board approval. The ballot and resolution live in district minutes, not the public export.

Confirm priority, return-flow terms, and any holdback per authorization in the Environmental Records Viewer.

Read next

Sector mix explained Transfer process
BRID / Cochrane case Irrigation districts

Water Register restates publicly available information. ERV is the system of record.

Intelligence

Allocation dataTransfer cases