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NEWSO F F I C I A L M A G A Z I N E O F T H E C A N A D I A N W A T E R R E S O U R C E S A S S O C I A T I O N

Vol 36 | No. 3 Fall 2017

WATER

ICID2018 CONFERENCE

FLOW REGATTA 2017

PRAIRIE HABITAT JOINT VENTURE

LE PROJET CONJOINT HABITAT DES PRAIRIES

JAUGER EN SÉCURITÉ

GAUGING SAFELY

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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE CANADIAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION 3

Published quarterly for:CANADIAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION176 Gloucester Street, Suite 320Ottawa, ON K2P 0A6www.cwra.org

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BUYER’S GUIDE

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CONTENTS

CWRA EXECUTIVE // Direction de l’ACRH

Fall 2017

PRESIDENT/PRÉSIDENTSean Douglas, Edmonton, AB

PRESIDENT ELECT/ PRÉSIDENT DÉSIGNÉStephen Braun, Mississauga ON

PAST PRESIDENT/ PRÉSIDENT SORTANTDave Murray, Victoria BC

TREASURER/TRÉSORIEREd Dean, Regina, SK

SECRETARY/SECRÉTAIREJohn van der Eerden, Vancouver, BC

PRESIDENT CANCID/ PRÉSIDENT DU CNCIDRoger Hohm, Coaldale, AB

CHAIR CSHS/ PRÉSIDENT DE LA SCSHJames Craig, Waterloo ON

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/ DIRECTEUR EXÉCUTIFDeirdre Laframboise, Ottawa ON

BRANCH PRESIDENTS/ PRÉSIDENTS DE DIVISIONB.C.: Michael Florendo

Alberta: Peter Morgan

Saskatchewan: Jaime Hogan

Manitoba: Carly Delavau

Ontario: Jeff Hirvonen

Quebec: Gilles Rivard

Newfoundland & Labrador: A.K. Abdel-Razek

New Brunswick: Jeff Melanson

Northwest Territories: Derek Faria

SYP NATIONAL CO-CHAIRS: Dave McCaffrey, Lethbridge and Nulifar Islam, Vancouver

JOURNAL EDITORS/ RÉDACTEURS DE LA REVUEChris Spence, Saskatoon, SK Jim Buttle, Peterborough, ON

WATER NEWS EDITOR/ RÉDACTEUR DU BULLETIN À PROPOS DE L’EAUSarah Fruin, Calgary, AB

NEWSO F F I C I A L M A G A Z I N E O F T H E C A N A D I A N W A T E R R E S O U R C E S A S S O C I A T I O N

Vol 36 | No. 3 Fall 2017

WATER

ICID2018 CONFERENCE

FLOW REGATTA 2017

PRAIRIE HABITAT JOINT VENTURE

LE PROJET CONJOINT HABITAT DES PRAIRIES

JAUGER EN SÉCURITÉ

GAUGING SAFELY

Cover photo by Ute Holweger

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE // MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT4/5 From the Helm // À la Barre

FEATURES 6 Lethbridge Flow Regatta 2017

13 Ducks Unlimited Canada Profile // Profil de Canards Illimités Canada

17 Our Common Water Future: Building Resilience Through Innovation

18 Gauging Safety // Jauger en sécurité

22 Ramblings of an old water guy What Do You Know About Your Drinking Water? // Que savez-vous à propos de votre eau potable?

BRANCH & AFFILIATE REPORTS24 Project WET Report

26 British Columbia Branch Update

27 Alberta Branch Update

28 Saskatchewan Branch Update

29 Manitoba Branch Update

30 Ontario Branch Update

4 WATER NEWS

FROM THE HELM

BY SEAN DOUGLAS

BY DEIRDRE LAFRAMBOISE

Hitting a Bold Stride in 2018

As 2017 nears its end we want to thank you all for your support of CWRA and we wish you and yours a very joyous holiday sea-son. We are excited about the

new year as CWRA has been busy as Santa’s elves in many areas; new staffing (Deirdre and Sarah); a very successful National Alberta Con-ference; CSHS courses; Branch webinars; the launch of a website redesign; new membership platform; and much more.

As we head into 2018 we are also taking the time to ask some important questions about CWRA and its evolution. In December, a small group of dedicated members and staff are div-ing into a strategic planning exercise to set a path forward for CWRA’s next chapter. Many key questions will be addressed by the Board at the Mid-Term meeting at the end of January to guide CWRA’s strategic plan for the years ahead.

So why now? At the young age of 70, CWRA is due to take stock of its activities and services, examine the broader water resources landscape, and listen to the ideas from our members and stakeholders in order to identify clear goals and objectives to proactively take this organization into the future. The Board will engage in the discussion and examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) that exist and/or lay ahead. Asking why and how we do things helps keep CWRA current, innovative, connected to oth-ers and engaged on the issues. Taking time to look at what we do well and where there may be gaps is important to any organization’s capacity to not just survive but thrive. We need to ask questions about our vision and mission and what the priorities issues are for the short and long term. Where should CWRA focus on topics such as climate change and disaster risk management, water quality, the North, Indig-enous Peoples, and positioning on the interna-tional water scene, as examples.

We believe the need for CWRA as a nation-al, evidence driven independent water resourc-es organization has never been stronger. Your collective voices will be important as we plan for the future and discuss these issues on Janu-ary 27 in Winnipeg. If you have views to share and are not going to be at the mid-term Board

meeting please share those with your Branch Presidents or reach out to us via e-mail. Once we have a strategic plan formulated in spring/summer 2018 we will share that with our mem-bers at large.

On behalf of all of the Board and staff we wish you a wonderful holiday season and cheers to a robust and happy new year for all.

Sean Douglas, PresidentDeirdre Laframboise, Executive Director

SYP CORNERThe SYP affiliates are excited to report new

chapters in Victoria, BC and Lethbridge, AB. New policies are being developed which will encourage the establishment of additional chapters across the country and further support existing chapters. For more information, con-tact the SYP executive at [email protected].

CWRA FACTOIDAs of the end of December, 2017 we have

nearly 2,400 subscribers to our bi-weekly elec-tronic newsletter. These subscribers have received over 58,000 emails in the past year that shared important information about important initiatives of the CWRA, upcoming events, and job opportunities. Thank you mem-bers and subscribers for consistently keeping our click rates above industry average and for the feedback that allows us to keep providing relevant information to you.

2018 LOOK AHEADAs mentioned above, the strategic plan-

ning process will identify priority areas for CWRA and help focus energy and resources to addressing these areas. We are always focused on securing sustainable funding and this goal will influence some of the decisions made through the decision making process.

We are continuing to improve our value to our membership and to reach for higher and higher goals. A new website interface and membership portal will start off our new look and feel for the organization. We are also pur-suing unique opportunities for cross promo-tion of events with other water industry experts

SYP Chapters

Vancouver

Victoria/Vancouver Island

Edmonton

Calgary

Winnipeg

Toronto

Ottawa

/ PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE //

“Does the appetite for a national water strategy exist, some think it does!” Continued on page 7


Montreal: A most memorable event

À LA BARRE

BY SEAN DOUGLAS

BY DEIRDRE LAFRAMBOISE

De grandes enjambées audacieuses en 2018

L’année 2017 tire déjà à sa fin et nous souhaitons vous remercier, cha-cun et chacune d’entre vous, pour votre soutien à l’ACRH. Nous tenons également à vous souhaiter une

très joyeuse période des fêtes. Nous sommes enthousiastes face à la nouvelle année qui s’an-nonce. En effet, l’ACRH a été aussi occupée que les petits lutins du Père Noël dans de nombreux domaines : de nouvelles dotations (Deirdre et Sarah); un congrès national ayant connu beau-coup de succès en Alberta, les cours de la SCSH, les webinaires, le lancement d’un site Web qui fait peau neuve; une nouvelle plateforme pour les membres et beaucoup plus encore.

Alors que nous sommes sur le point d’en-tamer l’année 2018, nous prenons également le temps de soulever d’importantes questions à propos de l’ACRH et de son évolution. En décembre, un petit groupe composé d’une par-tie de notre effectif et de membres dévoués s’est lancé dans un exercice de planification straté-gique pour donner le ton au prochain chapitre de l’ACRH. Le Conseil s’attaquera à de nombreuses questions clés à la réunion de mi-mandat à la fin janvier en vue de guider le plan stratégique de l’ACRH pour les années à venir.

Pourquoi maintenant direz-vous? L’heure est venue pour l’ACRH, demeurée jeune mal-gré ses 70 ans, de dresser le bilan de ses acti-vités et services, d’examiner le paysage des ressources hydriques dans son ensemble et d’écouter les idées des membres et des inter-venants afin de cerner des buts et des objectifs clairs qui traceront la voie de l’avenir de façon proactive pour cette organisation. Le Conseil prendra part aux discussions et se penchera sur les forces, faiblesses, occasions et menaces (analyse SWOT) qui existent ou qui pointent à l’horizon. S’interroger sur le pourquoi et le comment de notre démarche aide l’ACRH à demeurer innovatrice, à jour, en phase avec les autres et engagée envers les enjeux qui nous occupent. Peu importe la nature d’une orga-nisation, il est important de prendre le temps d’analyser ce que nous faisons bien et quelles peuvent être nos lacunes, pour ainsi ne pas se contenter de survivre mais pour prospérer. Nous devons poser des questions au sujet de notre vision et de notre mission et définir les enjeux

prioritaires à court et à long terme. Par exemple, sur quoi l’ACRH devrait-elle se concentrer? Sur des thèmes comme le changement climatique, la gestion des risques de catastrophe, la qualité de l’eau, le Nord, les peuples autochtones? Ou encore faut-il se positionner sur la scène interna-tionale dans le domaine de l’eau?

À notre avis, le besoin de l’ACRH en tant qu’organisme indépendant s’intéressant aux ressources hydriques et dont la culture est fon-dée sur des données probantes n’a jamais été aussi pressant. Vos voix collectives seront impor-tantes alors que nous planifierons l’avenir et aborderons ces enjeux le 27 janvier à Winnipeg. Si vous avez des points de vue à nous commu-niquer et que vous ne pensez pas être présents à la réunion du Conseil à mi-mandat, veuillez les transmettre aux présidents de section ou nous les communiquer par courriel. Dès que nous aurons un plan stratégique en place au printemps ou à l’été de 2018, il sera dévoilé à l’ensemble de nos membres.

Au nom du Conseil et de notre effectif, nous vous souhaitons de merveilleuses fêtes de fin d’année et nous levons nos verres à votre santé en vue d’une bonne et heureuse année pour chacun d’entre vous.

Sean Douglas, présidentDeirdre Laframboise, directrice administrative

LE COIN DES EJPLes regroupements d’EJP sont ravis d’annon-

cer de nouvelles sections à Victoria, en Colom-bie-Britannique et à Lethbridge, en Alberta. De nouvelles politiques sont en train d’être élabo-rées pour encourager la création de nouvelles sections dans l’ensemble du pays et pour mieux soutenir les sections existantes. Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, communiquez avec la direction des EJP à [email protected].

FACTOÏDE DE L’ACRHÀ la fin décembre 2017, nous avions presque

2 400 abonnés à notre bulletin électronique publié toutes les deux semaines. Ces abonnés ont reçu plus de 58 000 courriels au cours de la dernière année, dans lesquels d’importants renseignements leur étaient transmis à propos

SYP Chapters

Calgary ÉJP

Edmonton ÉJP

Toronto ÉJP

Vancouver ÉJP

Winnipeg ÉJP

/ MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT //

« Existe-t-il un

appétit pour

une stratégie

nationale de

l’eau? Certains

le pensent! » Suite à la page 7

It was a bright afternoon as I made my way to Lethbridge. The sky loomed large and foreboding with the weight of the impending Q competition. The sharpest hydrometric minds in the country were converging to test their mettle against one another at the 2017 CWRA Flow Regatta, Q-Competition, and BBQ. While the intention was adver-

tised as information sharing, skill enhancement, and scientific enquiry, we all knew that it was a high stakes battle of skill and nerve with only 1 champion.

The FieldThe Alberta Irrigation Technology Center (AITC) represents

the hydrographer’s dream/nightmare where the “True” flow is known to within 1%. This is accomplished by a closed loop

C’était un bel après-midi sur le chemin de Lethbridge. Le vaste ciel semblait peser de tout son poids, alourdi par la compé-tition Q imminente. Les esprits hydromé-triques les plus aiguisés du pays allaient bientôt s’affronter les uns les autres à la

Flow Regatta - compétition Q et barbecue de l’ACRH, édition 2017. Même si les objectifs de la compétition avaient été annoncés comme étant un partage de l’infor-mation, l’amélioration des compétences et une recherche scientifique, tout le monde savait fort bien qu’il s’agissait d’un affrontement aux enjeux élevés faisant appel à de solides compétences et à des nerfs d’acier et qu’une seule personne en ressortirait vainqueur!

/ FEATURE //

Continued on page 7 Suite à la page 10

6 WATER NEWS

LETHBRIDGEFLOW REGATTA 2017

The PlayersTo protect the identity of the competitor’s families, they

have been given stage names:

Les joueursAfin de protéger l’identité des familles des concurrents,

des noms de scène leur ont été donnés :

“El Conquistador”« El Conquistador »

“Fire and Ice“« Fire and Ice »

“The Duckman”Le « Duckman »

“The Marathon Man”Le « Marathon Man »

“The Bruiser”Le « Bruiser »

“The Wizard”Le « Wizard »

by Gabe Sentlinger


irrigation canal with pumps and in-pipe magmeters.

Stakes were high. Our facilitators, Gerald Ontkean and Lawrence Schin-kel played it very cool while competitors boasted of their prowess and brazenly called out wildly wrong flow estimates.

The GearMethods and equipment used were:

• Sontek’s newest ADV, the Flow-Track-er 2, provided by Hoskin Scientific,

• Fathom Scientific’s QiQuac Salt Dilu-tion measurement system,

• The Surface Structure Image Velocim-etry (SSIV) method as implemented inthe Imomo Discharge app,

• A Thermal InfraRed (TIR) Camera andtemperature probe,

• The AITC’s Rubicon Flumegate andBroad Crested Weir,

• Several Scientific Wild-Ass Guesses(SWAG)s.

Results and DiscussionTable 1 shows the compiled results of

the Flow Regatta with uncertainty stats calculated and colour coded. This table shows the party, location, method, esti-mated Q and associated uncertainty. The “True” Q and error are from the AITC’s magmeter. It’s important to understand the difference between uncertainty and error. Uncertainty is how well you know something, or the confidence you have in a measurement. It usually represents the 95% confidence interval, meaning you are 95% confident the true measurement is

within this uncertainty bound. Error, here represented by both “Magmeter: %Diff from” and “Magmeter: Agrees with?”, indicates the difference between the esti-mate of Q and the “True” Q.

In this table, 7% has been used as the threshold between a Grade A (Green) measurement and a Grade B (Yellow) measurement, and 15% between Grade B and Grade C (Red). Ideally, a mea-surement is both accurate and has a low uncertainty. An accurate measure-ment with a high uncertainty is arguably no better than an inaccurate measure-ment with a low uncertainty; i.e. you can-not be confident in the number, or it’s just wrong. An inaccurate measurement with high uncertainty at least indicates that you cannot trust the measurement and know it. Based on this discussion, a good measurement is green across the four coloured columns in Table 1.

The MorningGerald kept his secret well, but at the

end of the day revealed the morning “True” Q was 1.45 lps. The Wizard made a Grade A measurement (in Uncertainty) at the Rubicon Flumegate, but was 10% in Error. He later redeemed himself by estimating the flow accurately (Error = 3%) with a single velocity measurement and a SWAG, but with a high uncertainty of 25%. Only the SD measurement made with the QiQuac (in the diffuser pipe) met the cri-teria of Grade A in both Uncertainty and Error and is green across all four columns.

to strengthen our expertise. In addition to these activities, a Strategic Planning Committee is going to present at the mid-term National Board of Directors meet-ing in Winnipeg at the end of January to launch an aggressive communications and growth plan that will see our revenues and opportunities expand not just locally, but nationally and internationally.

FROM THE HELM

À LA BARREd’initiatives majeures de l’ACRH, d’évé-nements à venir et de perspectives d’em-ploi. Un grand merci aux membres et aux abonnés. Votre rétroaction nous permet de continuer à vous transmettre des ren-seignements pertinents et vos taux de clic sont supérieurs à la moyenne de l’industrie.

APERÇU DE 2018Comme nous l’avons mentionné

ci-dessus, le processus de planificationstratégique nous permettra de cernerles enjeux prioritaires pour l’ACRH et deconcentrer nos énergies et nos ressourcessur ces enjeux. Nous cherchons constam-ment à obtenir un financement durable etcet objectif influera sur certaines des déci-sions que nous prendrons tout au long duprocessus décisionnel.

Nous continuons de rehausser notre valeur auprès de nos membres et de cher-cher à atteindre des objectifs toujours plus élevés. Une nouvelle interface de site Web et un nouveau portail des membres ajouteront une autre dimension à l’as-pect et à la convivialité du site de l’orga-nisation. Nous sommes également en quête d’occasions uniques de promo-tion croisée d’événements avec d’autres experts du secteur de l’eau afin de ren-forcer notre expertise. En plus de ces acti-vités, un Comité de planification straté-gique fera une présentation à la réunion à mi-mandat du conseil d’administration national qui se tiendra à Winnipeg à la fin janvier en vue du lancement d’un auda-cieux plan de communications et de crois-sance visant à accroître nos revenus et à étendre nos occasions non pas seulement à l’échelle locale, mais également aux échelles nationale et internationale.

Continued from page 4

Suite de la page 5

Continued on page 8

Photo 1. Fire and Ice prepares to work her TIR magic as Lawrence Schinkel patrols the stations.

High Noon At high noon, there was no showdown.

El Conquistador regaled us with tales of lore (pretty sure his stories are made up) while contestants feigned civility, eating and chat-ting in the luxurious environs of the BBQ tent. A cornucopia of delectable dietary restriction conscious offerings were served up courtesy of Steve Biduk of GeoScien-tific Ltd. But, when the clock struck 1, smiles and custom gave way to leers and strata-gems as the afternoon contest began.

The AfternoonIn the afternoon, no measurement met

the green criteria across all columns. Again, the Wizard managed to come within 7% of the Magmeter flow using the Rubicon Flu-megate, but wavered in confidence (again), hazarding a 25% uncertainty on his estimate. The Marathon Man was on the opposite end of scale being highly confident in his wrong answer of 45 lps using the Flow Tracker 2. The QiQuac SD measurement averaged 55 lps with a 10% uncertainty, just shy of con-taining the Magmeter “True” Q of 61.5 lps. The Bruiser rose above the disturbingly wrong SWAGs of the Duckman and El Con-quistador to come within 7% with his SWAG of 57 lps. The SSIV method showed promise with a 21% error.

ConclusionsMeasuring low flows in seemingly ideal

conditions for current metering (paral-lel banks, flat bottom with very little tur-bulence) is more difficult than expected. In the morning, the very low velocities of the AITC irrigation canal proved problem-atic for the Sontec Flow Tracker 2, result-ing in errors between 45% to 190%. Both Froud and Volumetric methods at the Rubi-con Flumegate failed to achieve a Grade A measurement in both uncertainty and accuracy. Only the Salt Dilution measure-ment using the QiQuac achieved Grade A in both uncertainty and accuracy, although this method required significant time to fine-tune and adapt to the site. Forced mix-ing for SD is a new approach to this method born from the fertile soil of the Flow Regat-ta. SSIV showed promise as a relatively fast method for non-intrusive flow estimation.

In the afternoon, experience guided sev-eral of the measurements towards a Grade B measurement in accuracy. No single method


8 WATER NEWS

Figure 1: A measurement falling on the top of the Unity line has an uncertainty greater than the error, and therefore agrees with the Magmeter. Points within the Grade A Bullseye are ideal.


achieved a Grade A in both uncertainty and accu-racy. It was surprising that conventional meth-ods i.e. multi-panel current metering, produced results that were no better than ±45% in error in the morning and ±27% in the afternoon. Weir measurements were able to achieve results with a 10% accuracy, but were tempered by good judgement.

In summary, the 2017 CWRA Flow Regatta, Q-competition, and BBQ in Lethbridge was asuccess and the true champion was everymanHydrographer. Experience, tips, and tricks wereexchanged. New methods, both commercial andexperimental, were tried and valuable informa-tion on how to improve on them was garnered.It was good chance to meet colleagues fromacross the country, and objectively assess boththe uncertainty and error of their methods formeasuring low flows.

YOU can be a champion too by attending the 2018 CWRA Flow Regatta, Q-competition, and BBQ in Victoria B.C.!

Notes1) SWAG-Scientific Wild-Ass Guess, FT2-Flow Tracker 2, SSIV-Surface Structure Image Velocimetry, SD-Salt Dilution with QiQuac2) Grade A is if Uncertainty is < 7%, Grade B is if Uncertainty is less than 15% but greater than 7%, Grade C is if Uncertainty greater than 15%.3) Uncertainty and Grade are assigned by the practitioner or instrument without knowledge of MagMeter flow.4) “Agress with Magmeter” indicates the absolute %Diff from Magmeter is less than the quadrature sum of the Magmeter and Instrument Uncertanty.5) Ideally, a measurement is Grade A and agrees with Magmeter.

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10 WATER NEWS

Suite de la page 6

que vous êtes confiant à 95 % que la mesure réelle se situe à l’intérieur des marges d’incertitude. L’erreur, ici représentée par « Magmeter: % d’écart de » et « Magmeter: Agrees with? », indique la différence entre l’estimation du débit (Q) et le débit réel.

Dans ce tableau, un pourcen-tage de 7 % a servi de seuil entre la mesure de niveau A (Vert) et la mesure de niveau B (Jaune) et 15 % entre le niveau B et le niveau C (Rouge). Idéalement, une mesure est à la fois exacte et accompagnée d’une faible incertitude. Une mesure exacte qui s’accompagne d’une incertitude élevée n’est pas meil-leure, pourrait-on soutenir, qu’une mesure inexacte accompagnée d’une faible incertitude; c’est-à-dire que vous ne pouvez pas faire confiance aux chiffres obtenus, ou ils sont tout simplement erronés. Une mesure inexacte qui s’accompagne d’une incertitude élevée indique à tout le moins que vous ne pouvez pas vous fier à la mesure et que vous le savez. À la lumière de ces propos, une bonne mesure est verte dans l’ensemble des quatre colonnes de couleur dans le tableau 1.

La matinéeGerald a su protéger son secret,

mais à la fin de la journée a révélé que le débit « réel » du matin était de 1,45 l/s. Le Wizard a pris une

mesure de niveau A (en incertitude) au FlumeGate de Rubicon, mais pré-sentait une erreur de 10 %. Il s’est repris par la suite en estimant le débit avec exactitude (Erreur = 3 %) avec une mesure de vitesse unique et une estimation très estimative (SWAG), mais avec une incertitude élevée de 25 %. Seule la mesure de l’écart-type prise avec le QiQuac (dans le tuyau diffuseur) a répondu au critère du niveau A autant pour l’incertitude que pour l’erreur et elle est verte dans toutes les quatre colonnes.

Midi tapant À midi tapant, aucun bras de fer.

El Conquistador nous a régalés de ses légendes folkloriques (parions qu’elles étaient inventées) tandis que les concurrents s’échangeaient des civilités, prenaient une bouchée et bavardaient dans le luxueux décor de la tente BBQ. Une corne d’abon-dances de mets délectables (étant tenu compte des restrictions alimen-taires) a été servie, une gracieuseté de Steve Biduk de GeoScientific Ltd. Cependant, à 13 h tapant, les sou-rires et les civilités ont vite cédé la place aux ruses et aux stratagèmes en tout début d’après-midi.

L’après-midiEn après-midi, aucune mesure n’a

répondu aux critères « vert » dans l’ensemble des colonnes. Ici encore,

Sur le terrainL’Alberta Irrigation Technology

Center (AITC) représente le rêve ou le cauchemar de l’hydrographe, là où le débit « réel » se situerait à l’intérieur d’une marge de 1 %. Cela est rendu possible grâce à un canal d’irrigation à boucle fermée muni de pompes et de débitmètres électromagnétiques dans un tuyau.

Les enjeux étaient élevés. Nos faci-litateurs, Gerald Ontkean et Lawrence Schinkel, se la jouaient « cool » tandis que les concurrents se targuaient de leurs prouesses et lançaient haut et fort, à qui voulait l’entendre, leurs esti-mations de débit largement erronées.

L’équipementVoici les méthodes et l’équipement

utilisés :• Le tout nouveau vélocimètre acous-

tique à effet Doppler de Sontek, leFlow-Tracker 2, fourni par HoskinScientific;

• Le système de mesure de dilutionsaline QiQuac de Fathom Scientific;

• La méthode de la vélocimétrie àimagerie de structure des surfaces(SSIV) telle qu’elle est employéedans l’appli de débit iMoMo;

• Une caméra infrarouge thermiqueet une sonde de température;

• Le « FlumeGate » Rubicon del’AITC et le déversoir à seuil épais;

• Quelques estimations très approxi-matives (SWAG).

Résultats et discussionsLe tableau 1 illustre les résultats

compilés de la Flow Regatta avec l’incertitude statistique calculée et un code de couleurs. Ce tableau fait état de la partie, du lieu, de la méthode, du débit estimé et de l’in-certitude associée. Le débit « réel » et l’erreur sont tirés du débitmètre électromagnétique de l’AITC. Il est important de comprendre la diffé-rence entre l’incertitude et l’erreur. L’incertitude est la mesure suivant laquelle vous connaissez quelque chose ou la confiance que vous avez en une mesure. Elle repré-sente habituellement l’intervalle de confiance de 95 %, ce qui signifie

Photo 1. La concurrente Fire and Ice s’apprête à faire son petit tour de passe-passe « infrarouge thermique » tandis que Lawrence Schinkel fait sa tournée des stations.

le Wizard a réussi à s’approcher dans une marge de 7 % du débit du débitmètre électromagnétique à l’aide du FlumeGate de Rubicon, mais a affiché une confiance chance-lante (encore une fois), en estimant au hasard un degré d’incertitude de 25 %. Le Marathon Man se situait à l’extrémité opposée de l’échelle, étant hautement confiant dans sa réponse erronée de 45 l/s à l’aide du Flow Tracker 2. La mesure de l’écart-type QiQuac s’établissait en moyenne à 55 l/s avec 10 % d’incerti-tude, ce qui est légèrement inférieur au Q « réel » de 61,5 l/s. Le Bruiser a su s’élever au-dessus de la mêlée des « SWAG » carrément erronées du Duckman et d’El Conquistador pour se situer à l’intérieur de l’écart de 7 % avec son estimation très approximative de 57 l/s. La méthode SSIV s’est avérée prometteuse, affi-chant une erreur de 21 %.

ConclusionsIl s’avère plus difficile que prévu

de mesurer des débits faibles dans des conditions en apparence idéales pour le comptage du courant (rives parallèles, fond plat avec très peu de turbulence). Le matin, les vitesses très faibles du canal d’irrigation de l’AITC ont été problématiques pour le Flow Tracker 2 de SonTek, ce qui a occasionné des erreurs allant de 45 % à 190 %. À la fois les méthodes Froud et volumétriques au Flume-Gate de Rubicon n’ont pas réussi à donner une mesure de niveau A en fait d’incertitude et d’exactitude. Seule la mesure de dilution saline faisant appel au QiQuac a donné lieu à une mesure de niveau A à la fois au chapitre de l’incertitude et de l’exactitude, bien que cette méthode exige pas mal de temps p o u r ê t re p e a u f i n é e e t p o u r être adaptée au site. Le mélange forcé pour l’écart-type consiste en une nouvelle approche de cette méthode issue du sol fertile de la Flow Regatta. La méthode SSIV a semblé prometteuse en tant que méthode relativement rapide pour l’estimation du débit de manière non intrusive.


Figure 1 : Une mesure qui tombe au-dessus de la ligne de jonction présente une incertitude supérieure à l’erreur et par conséquent est conforme au débitmètre électromagnétique. Les points à l’ intérieur de la cible Niveau A sont des mesures idéales.

12 WATER NEWS

exactitude de 10 %, mais elles ont été tempérées par le bon jugement.

En résumé, la Flow Regatta - com-pétition Q et BBQ de l’ACRH de 2017 à Lethbridge a connu beaucoup de succès et c’est l’hydrographe qui som-meille en chacun des concurrents qui a été proclamé « véritable champion ». En effet, l’expérience, des conseils et des trucs ont été échangés. De nou-velles méthodes, à la fois commer-ciales et expérimentales, ont été mises à l’essai et de précieux renseigne-ments ont été recueillis sur la façon d’améliorer les diverses méthodes. Cette compétition représentait une belle occasion de rencontrer les collè-gues de partout au pays et d’évaluer avec objectivité à la fois l’incertitude et l’erreur rattachées à leurs méthodes de mesure des débits faibles.

VOUS aussi aurez la chance d’être proclamé champion! Il vous suffit de prendre part à la Flow Regatta - compétition Q et BBQ de l’ACRH en 2018 à Victoria, en Colombie-Britannique!

résultats obtenus grâce aux méthodes traditionnelles, p. ex. le comptage du courant à multiples panneaux, n’étaient pas meilleurs que ±45 % en erreur le matin et ±27 % l’après-midi. Les mesures du déversoir ont pu don-ner lieu à des résultats affichant une

En après-midi , l’expérience a orienté plusieurs des mesures vers une mesure de niveau B en exacti-tude. Aucune méthode en particu-lier n’est parvenue au niveau A à la fois en incertitude et en exactitude. Il était surprenant de constater que les

Notes1) SWAG-Scientific Wild-Ass Guess, FT2-Flow Tracker 2, SSIV-Surface Structure Image Velocimetry, SD-Salt Dilution with QiQuac2) Grade A is if Uncertainty is < 7%, Grade B is if Uncertainty is less than 15% but greater than 7%, Grade C is if Uncertainty greater than 15%.3) Uncertainty and Grade are assigned by the practitioner or instrument without knowledge of MagMeter flow.4) “Agress with Magmeter” indicates the absolute %Diff from Magmeter is less than the quadrature sum of the Magmeter and Instrument Uncertanty.5) Ideally, a measurement is Grade A and agrees with Magmeter.

Water without Borders:Breaking down barriers to achieve a more integrated approach to watershed management

#2018MBCWRA

Holiday Inn Airport WestGroup Rate $123/night (Booking Code: WR1)2520 Portage Ave 1-877-660-8550

January 26, 2018Winnipeg, Manitoba(Yes, Wpg in January...it will be great!)

Photo: Travel Manitoba

Registration: www.regonline.ca/cwra2018workshop

Members: $110 Non-members: $140 Students: $50


It’s a fair bet that many of the readers may not have heard of the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture (PHJV). In this respect, it is probably one of the best kept conserva-tion secrets in Canada, if not North America. Found-ed in 1989 under the auspices of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP; http://nawmp.

wetlandnetwork.ca/index.php), the PHJV is a partnership of federal, provincial, and non-governmental organizations representing a broad range of landscape conservation inter-ests in prairie, parkland and associated boreal forest land-scapes in western Canada (http://phjv.ca/index.html). By all accounts, the PHJV has been a successful partnership. Over its 30 year existence, the PHJV has conserved over 6.8 million acres of wetlands and associated upland habitat. While the PHJV receives support from many partner sources, governing partners include Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) - Canadian Wildlife Service(CWS), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD), Alberta NAWMP, Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA), Saskatchewan Environment, Mani-toba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC), Manitoba Con-servation, Bird Studies Canada (BSC), Ducks Unlimited Canada

Il y a fort à parier que bon nombre des lecteurs n’ontpeut-être jamais entendu parler du Projet conjointHabitat des Prairies (PCHP). À vrai dire, c’estprobablement l’un des secrets de conservation lesmieux gardés au Canada, voire en Amérique du Nord.Fondé en 1989 sous les auspices du Plan nord-amé-

ricain de gestion de la sauvagine (PNAGS; http://nawmp.wetlandnetwork.ca/index.php), le PCHP consiste en un partenariat d’organisations fédérales, provinciales et non gouvernementales représentant un large éventail d’intérêts en matière de sauvegarde du paysage des Prairies, des prai-ries-parcs et des paysages connexes de la forêt boréale dans l’Ouest du Canada (http://phjv.ca/index.html). Au dire de tous, le PCHP a été un partenariat fructueux. Au cours de ses 30 ans d’existence et plus, le PCHP a favorisé la conserva-tion de plus de 6,8 millions d’acres de terres humides et de milieux secs associés. Bien que le PCHP reçoive le soutien de nombreuses sources, les partenaires gouvernementaux comprennent les organismes suivants : Environnement et Changement climatique Canada (ECCC) – Service canadien de la faune (SCF), Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada (AAC), Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD),

James Devries, Ph.D., Canards illimités Canada – Institut de recherche sur les terres humides et la sauvagine

James Devries, Ph.D., Ducks Unlimited Canada – Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research


THE PRAIRIE HABITAT JOINT VENTURE – BRINGING SCIENCE TO WETLANDCONSERVATION IN PRAIRIE CANADA

LE PROJET CONJOINT HABITAT DES PRAIRIES – METTRE LA SCIENCE AU SERVICE DE LACONSERVATION DES MILIEUX HUMIDESDANS LES PRAIRIES CANADIENNES

14 WATER NEWS

(DUC), Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), and Wildlife Habitat Canada (WHC).

But let’s back up – why do we have a PHJV in the first place? In short, the NAWMP was formed in 1986 in response to declining waterfowl

populations and concern over loss of wetland habitat in critical breed-ing grounds like the prairies of Cana-da – also known as the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR; Doherty et al. 2017). Not since the signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918 had the U.S. and Cana-dian governments come together to

address an international concern over declining bird populations. Because of its regional importance to North Ameri-can breeding waterfowl, the PHJV was one of the first Joint Ventures formed to address declining waterfowl habitat in the PPR. Thus, wetlands and associated habitat are the focus of conservation efforts in this partnership.

This is where the PHJV Science Com-mittee comes in. The PHJV is proud to be a science-based conservation coop-erative – meaning that our conservation efforts are guided by science. Over the past 30 years of conservation delivery, the PHJV Science Committee has been tasked with identifying research and information needs, and conducting field research to insure our activities have the greatest impact. Our research focuses not only on an improved understanding of the role wetlands play in supporting populations of waterfowl and other wet-land birds, but also on the broad eco-logical services that wetlands provide to society – the latter being the focus of this article.

Foundational to understanding the impact of wetland loss, is understand-ing the rate and pattern of their con-tinued loss. A flagship effort to this end has been the PHJV Prairie Habitat Monitoring Program lead by scientists at ECCC-CWS. This program has tracked changes in wetland and upland habitat on 153–221 19.2 km transects across the PPR since 1985 with updates in 2001 and 2011. The effort has documented continued wetland loss up to 80% on some transects with an average annual decline in wetland area of 0.3%/yr (Wat-mough and Schmoll 2007). While seem-ingly small, this translates to the loss of approximately 3.6 ha of wetland /day in the Manitoba portion of the PPR alone, primarily as a result of agricultural intensification (Watmough and Schmoll 2007).

Understanding the impact of this loss on ecological services other than waterfowl is critical to the success of the PHJV. Work conducted by PHJV partners has shown that these drainage activities have the potential to dramati-cally alter hydrology – reducing storage capacity and increasing peak flows from Canadian prairie watersheds. Further,


Impact of wetland drainage on wetlands in a portion of the Broughton’s Creek, MB watershed 1968–2005.

Incidence du drainage des terres humides sur les milieux humides dans une portion du bassin versant du ruisseau Broughton, au Manitoba, de 1968 à 2005.


drainage has increased nutrient export from agricultural lands into Manitoba’s rivers and lakes. For example, research conducted by Ducks Unlimited Cana-da’s Institute for Wetland and Water-fowl Research has concluded that wet-land drainage between 1968 and 2005 in the Broughton’s Creek watershed of southwestern Manitoba (Figure 1) increased peak flows, and phosphorus and nitrogen export from the water-shed, by up to 25% (Yang et al. 2010). This is of particular concern as much of the increased flow occurs following snowmelt, when soils are mostly fro-zen and there is little opportunity for biological uptake. Nutrient concentra-tions are highest in runoff at this time of year in dissolved form and bioavail-able – contributing to eutrophication and algal blooms in downstream lakes and rivers. These results have led to the recognition that protection and restora-tion of drained wetlands in prairie land-scapes can significantly contribute to downstream reductions in flooding and improvements in water quality. (Felt-mate and Thistlewaite 2012; http://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/waterstewardship//iwmp/willow_creek/documentation/ducks.pdf). PHJV partners also have played a significant role in understanding the role of prairie wetlands in carbon storage and sequestration (Badiou et al. 2011). Prior to this work, few studies had exam-ined the net carbon source/sink dynam-ics in prairie wetlands.

Services provided by wetlands in prairie Canada are likely to only increase in value under projected climate change scenarios. PHJV partners have recently initiated new research, in conjunction with the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security, to use downscaled global climate models to understand the impact of future cli-mate on wetland area and abundance in prairie Canada. This work, in combina-tion with existing and projected drain-age impacts, will provide insight not only to effects on waterfowl and asso-ciated prairie biodiversity, but also to downstream flood potential, agricultural nutrient export, and carbon sequestra-tion potential.

No article on the PHJV partner-ship would be complete without

underlining their combined ongoing efforts to complete the Canadian Wet-land Inventory (CWI) for the prairie region. The CWI is a national initia-tive to map Canada’s wetland wealth for regional planning, conservation, and sustainable growth initiatives that maintain environmental and societal benefits (http://maps.ducks.ca/cwi/). The CWI provides easy access to digi-tally mapped and classified wetlands using a standardized data structure and management protocols.

An oft-quoted proverb states: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Together, with the help of science, the PHJV has come far in its 30 year existence. It will go further in the years ahead.

Alberta NAWMP, Water Security Agen-cy (WSA) de la Saskatchewan, le minis-tère de l’Environnement de la Saska-tchewan, la Société protectrice du patrimoine écologique du Manitoba (SPPE), Conservation Manitoba, Études d’Oiseaux Canada (EOC), Canards Illi-mités Canada (CIC), Conservation de la nature Canada (CNC) et Habitat fau-nique Canada (HFC).

Mais revenons en arrière. Tout d’abord, quelle est la raison d’être du PCHP? En gros, le PNAGS a été consti-tué en 1986 en réponse au déclin des populations de sauvagine et aux pré-occupations liées à la perte d’habitat humide dans les lieux de reproduc-tion critiques tels que les Prairies du Canada, également connus sous le nom de région des Marmites torren-tielles des Prairies (RMTP; Doherty et al. 2017). Depuis la signature du traité sur les oiseaux migrateurs en 1918, les gouvernements des États-Unis et du Canada n’avaient jamais fait cause commune afin de s’attaquer aux pré-occupations internationales quant au déclin des populations d’oiseaux. En raison de son importance régionale pour la sauvagine reproductrice de l’Amérique du Nord, le PCHP a été l’un des premiers projets conjoints mis sur pied afin de s’attaquer à l’enjeu du déclin de l’habitat de la sauvagine dans la RMTP. Par conséquent, les ini-tiatives de conservation prévues par ce partenariat sont axées sur les milieux humides et l’habitat connexe.

C’est à ce stade qu’intervient le Comité scientifique du PCHP. Le PCHP est fier d’être une coopé-rative de conservation à caractère scientifique, ce qui signifie que nos efforts de conservation sont guidés par la science. Au cours des 30 der-nières années de travaux dans le domaine de la conservation, le Comité scientifique du PCHP s’est vu confier le mandat de cerner les besoins en matière de recherche et d’informa-tion et de mener des recherches sur le terrain afin que nos activités aient la plus grande portée possible. Nos recherches mettent l’accent non seule-ment sur l’amélioration de la compré-hension du rôle des milieux humides

Suite de la page 13

Literature CitedBadiou, P., R. McDougall, D. Pen-

nock, and B. Clark. 2011. Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestra-tion potential in restored wetlands of the Canadian prairie pothole region. Wetlands Ecology and Management 19:237-256.

Doherty, K. E., D. W. Howerter, J. H. Devries, and J. Walker. 2017. The prai-rie pothole region. Pages 1–10 in C. M. Finlayson, G. R. Milton, R. C. Pren-tice, and N. C. Davidson, editors. The Wetland Book II: Distribution, Descrip-tion and Conservation. Springer, Dor-drecht, Netherlands.

Feltmate, B., and J. Thistlethwaite. 2012. Climate change adaptation: A priorities plan for Canada. Climate Change Adaptation Project. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.

Watmough, M. D., and J. Schmoll. 2007. Environment Canada’s prairie and northern region habitat monitor-ing program phase II: recent habitat trends in the Prairie Habitat Joint Ven-ture. Environment Canada. Technical Report Series No. 493. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Yang W., X. Wang, Y. Liu, S. Gabor, L. Boychuk, and P. Badiou. 2010. Simu-lated environmental effects of wetland restoration scenarios in a typical Cana-dian prairie watershed. Wetlands Ecol-ogy and Management 18:269–279.

16 WATER NEWS

dans le soutien aux populations de sauvagine et autres oiseaux de milieux humides, mais également sur les bien-faits écologiques en général que les milieux humides représentent pour la société, soit l’aspect principal sur lequel porte le présent article.

À l a b a s e m ê m e d e l a compréhension de l’incidence des pertes de zones humides réside la compréhension du taux et de la ten-dance de ces pertes continues. Une initiative phare à cette fin a été le Programme d’intendance de l’habitat du PCHP dirigé par des scientifiques à ECCC-SCF. Ce programme a per-mis de suivre les modifications qu’ont subies les milieux humides et les milieux secs dans 153 à 221 transects de 19,2 km à la grandeur de la région des Marmites torrentielles des Prairies depuis 1985, des mises à jour ayant été faites en 2001 et en 2011. L’ini-tiative a permis de documenter une perte de l’habitat continue atteignant jusqu’à 80 % pour certains transects, avec un déclin annuel moyen des milieux humides de 0,3 % par année (Watmough et Schmoll 2007). Bien que cette perte semble banale, elle cor-respond à la perte d’environ 3,6 ha de zones humides par jour dans la portion manitobaine de la RMTP uniquement, en grande partie en raison de l’intensi-fication de l’agriculture (Watmough et Schmoll 2007).

Il est essential au succès du PCHP de comprendre l’incidence de cette perte sur les services écologiques autres que ceux qui se rapportent à la sauvagine. Le travail accompli par les partenaires du PCHP a démontré que ces activités de drainage peuvent modifier énormément l’hydrologie, ce qui réduit la capacité d’emma-gasinement et accroît les débits de pointe des bassins hydrographiques des Prairies. Par ailleurs, le drainage a accru l’apport des nutriments des terres agricoles vers les rivières et les lacs du Manitoba. Par exemple, les recherches menées par l’Institut de recherche sur les terres humides et la sauvagine de Canards Illimités Canada ont conclu que le drainage des terres humides entre 1968 et 2005 dans le

permettront de jeter un éclairage non seulement sur les retombées pour la sauvagine et la biodiversité connexe des Prairies, mais également sur les risques potentiels d’inondation en aval, sur l’exportation de nutriments en milieu agricole et sur le potentiel de séquestration de carbone.

Aucun article portant sur le parte-nariat PCHP ne serait complet sans que l’on ne souligne les efforts com-binés que déploient les partenaires en vue de mener à bien l’Inventaire cana-dien des terres humides (ICTH) pour la région des Prairies. L’ICTH consiste en une initiative nationale visant à carto-graphier les terres humides du Canada et leur état de santé à des fins de pla-nification régionale, de conservation et aussi pour appuyer les initiatives de croissance durable visant à préser-ver les bienfaits environnementaux et sociaux (http://maps.ducks.ca/cwi/). L’ICTH offre un accès simple aux don-nées sur les milieux humides ayant fait l’objet d’une cartographie et d’une classification numériques grâce à une structure de données et à des proto-coles de gestion normalisés.

Pour reprendre un proverbe sou-vent cité : « Tout seul on va plus vite, ensemble on va plus loin ». Ensemble, avec l’aide de la science, le PCHP est allé loin au cours de ses 30 années d’existence. Il ira encore plus loin dans les années à venir.

bassin versant du ruisseau Broughton au sud-ouest du Manitoba (Figure 1) a eu pour effet d’accroître les débits de pointe, ainsi que l’exportation de phosphore et d’azote du bassin hydro-graphique, dans une proportion allant jusqu’à 25 % (Yang et al. 2010). Cela soulève des inquiétudes particulières étant donné qu’une bonne partie de la hausse du débit survient après la fonte des neiges, lorsque les sols sont le plus souvent gelés et que les pos-sibilités d’absorption biologique sont faibles. Les concentrations en nutri-ments sont les plus élevées dans le ruissellement à cette époque de l’an-née sous forme dissoute et biodispo-nible, ce qui contribue à l’eutrophisa-tion et à la prolifération d’algues dans les lacs et rivières en aval. Ces résultats ont donné lieu à la reconnaissance que la protection et la remise en état des terres humides drainées dans les Prai-ries peuvent contribuer de manière considérable à la réduction des inon-dations en aval et à l’amélioration de la qualité de l’eau. (Feltmate et Thistle-waite 2012; http://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/waterstewardship//iwmp/willow_creek/documentation/ducks.pdf). Par ailleurs, les partenaires du PCHP y sont pour beaucoup dans la compréhension du rôle des milieux humides des Prairies dans le stockage et la séquestration de carbone (Badiou et al. 2011). Avant leurs travaux, peu d’études s’étaient penchées sur la dynamique de la source/du puits de carbone net dans les terres humides des Prairies.

Les services qu’offrent les milieux humides des Prairies canadiennes sont susceptibles de voir leur valeur s’ac-croître, ni plus ni moins, à la lumière des scénarios projetés quant au chan-gement climatique. Les partenaires du PCHP ont lancé dernièrement de nouvelles recherches, conjointement avec le Global Institute for Water Secu-rity de l’Université de la Saskatchewan, en vue de faire appel à des modèles climatiques mondiaux convertis à une échelle inférieure pour comprendre l’incidence du climat futur sur les zones humides et sur leur abondance dans les Prairies canadiennes. Ces tra-vaux, combinés à l’étude des effets du drainage existants et projetés,

Suite de la page 15


The 1987 Bruntland Report -- Our Common Future – introduced environment into the political sphere and spawned the idea of sustainable development for the future. A key element of that future sustainability is water, as a resource and as a hazard.

Scroll forward to Canada in the year 2100. What will our common water future look like? Will we be reacting to one crisis after another in the face of changing water environments due to climate change and increasing social demands? Or will we have built a sustainable and resilient water future where we’ve applied the best of our knowledge and talent to develop innovative solutions to future water challenges? And in building “our common water future” have we included the contributions of a diversity of voices that will have a stake in that future?

“Our Common Water Future: Building Resilience Through Innovation” will bring water resource professionals and others together to help chart the path to that safe, sustainable and resilient water future. We will learn from each other’s experiences and share our innovative ideas for building a common water future in a range of water-related themes that include:

• Planning, Policy and Governance

• Transboundary Water Management

• Watershed Management

• First Nations and Water

• Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation

• Flood and Drought Hazards and Management

• Hydrology, Hydraulics and Hydrotechnical Engineering

• Science, Technology and Infrastructure

• Ecosystems

• Agriculture

• International Case Studies

• Other Relevant Topics

C W R A N A T I O N A L C O N F E R E N C E 2 0 1 8

AbstractsAbstracts are invited for presentations and posters related to the conference themes. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words.

DeadlinesPlease submit abstracts by January 31, 2018.

Program will be published on the conference website by March 31, 2018.

Student AwardsFor students who are wishing to compete for student awards to be presented at the CWRA 2018 Conference, please note that you

will need to check off the STUDENT box in addition to selecting a theme for your presentation when filling out your submission form. In order for a student to be considered for these awards, she/he must be a full-time student, first author and presenter at the conference. The student’s paper, poster and oral presentation will be assessed based on the following qualities (or criteria):

• originality;• contribution to water resources

knowledge; • technical and analytical

quality; and• clarity of the presentation.

Once a student submits an abstract and expresses interest in competing for student awards, the Awards Chair will contact all interested students by email with further details on student awards process and its requirements. Meanwhile, if students require further details, please contact the Awards Chair at [email protected]

GeneralSpecial streams, workshops, and training sessions are planned for CSHS and NASH, amongst others. The conference will include field trips in the beautiful natural environment of Vancouver Island on Canada’s west coast.

OUR COMMON WATER FUTURE:BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH INNOVATIONMay 28 - June 1, 2018 | Delta Hotels Ocean Pointe Resort | Victoria, BC

18 WATER NEWS

Among the various pictures and videos of stream gauging that can be found on the internet, an important element if often missing: a personal flotation device (PFD). This suggests that safe behaviors might not be as widespread as they should among

hydrologists involved in stream gauging.There are plenty of things that could go wrong during

a field trip. This can range from a wide variety of minor incidents (e.g. blisters, cuts and scrapes) to more important injuries (e.g. sprain ankles, etc.) to potentially fatal accidents and everything in between. However, it is known that the probability of a serious accident increases with the number of minor incidents. This makes sense, but was also formally demonstrated by Frank E. Bird Jr in 1969, in a study involving more than 200 enterprises in various fields or activities. This principle is therefore known as Bird’s pyramid: if an organization or team can successfully reduce the number of incidents or « near-accidents » at the base of the pyramid, it also decreases the occurence of serious accidents.

The day it all turned out badlyUnfortunately, we sometimes assume that we are

immune to dangers and that accidents only happen to others, until the day something goes wrong. To a certain extent, I experienced this myself. It happened while I was on holidays, hiking in the White mountains wi-fi free. Some of my students decided to go gauging the Caribou River, for the master’s degree project of one of them. It is a rather small river, which is usually best gauged by wading with a handheld velocimeter. Students were starting to know it pretty well. Once arrived at the river outlet, students took out the velocimeter and put on wadders as well as personal flotation devices (which were at least already part of our safety protocol). A student ventured in the water to take measures, but she soon realized that the current was much stronger than it seemed from the bank. At this point, I must include an important precision: the Caribou River empties in the Saguenay River, one of the largest affluent of the St-Lawrence River. The student almost got carried away, but fortunately, she managed to let go of the velocimeter and grabbed the tagline. In the absence of a throw bag (see below), the other students helped her out using the tagline.

Sur les photos et vidéos de jaugeage que l’on peut trouver sur internet, il arrive souvent qu’il manque un élément essentiel: la veste de flottaison in-dividuelle (VFI). Ce constat porte à croire que les comportements sécuritaires lors des jaugeages en rivière ne sont pas encore complètement acquis.

Il y a toute une gamme d’incidents et d’accidents qui peuvent survenir durant une sortie sur le terrain. On peut pen-ser à une panoplie de blessures mineures (ex. coupures, am-poules et éraflures), en passant par divers événements de gra-vité variable (ex. entorses, foulures, et bien d’autres choses encore), jusqu’à un accident très grave, possiblement fatal. Or, il est connu que la probabilité d’un accident grave aug-mente avec le nombre d’incidents mineurs qui surviennent. On le comprend intuitivement, mais ce lien a également été démontré formellement par Frank E. Bird Jr. en 1969, dans le cadre d’une étude impliquant plus de 200 entreprises dans divers champs d’activité. Ce principe est conséquemment connu sous le nom de « pyramide de Bird »: si une organi-sation ou une équipe réussi à réduire le nombre d’incident mineurs qui surviennent et qui constituent la base de la py-ramide, alors l’occurrence d’accidents graves diminue aussi.

Le jour où ça a mal tournéMalheureusement, on pense parfois être à l’abri des ac-

cidents (qui n’arrivent qu’aux autres!) jusqu’à temps que ça nous arrive. C’était mon cas, jusqu’à un certain point. J’étais en vacances, complètement déconnectée, en randonnée dans les White Mountains. Certains de mes étudiants ont décidé d’aller jauger la rivière Caribou, pour le projet de re-cherche de l’une d’entre eux. C’est une petite rivière, qui se jauge habituellement à gué et les étudiants commençaient à la connaitre plutôt bien. Arrivés à l’exutoire, ils ont sorti le vélocimètre, puis mis les cuissardes et les vestes de flottai-son, qui au moins faisaient déjà partie de mon protocole de sécurité. Une étudiante est allée dans l’eau pour prendre les mesures. À peine quelques pas et c’est la catastrophe : le courant est plus fort qu’il en a l’air de la berge, elle perd pied et sent qu’elle va être emportée. Détail important dans cette histoire: la rivière Caribou se jette dans la rivière Saguenay, un des plus gros affluents du fleuve St-Laurent. Heureusement, elle a pu lâcher le vélocimètre pour attraper la ligne métrique1 et les autres l’ont tirée d’affaire.

GAUGING SAFELYJAUGER EN SÉCURITÉ


1 « tagline » en anglais


up person would end up being pushed down by the current and held underwater and the end of the rope, which would then become the most imminent threat to this person’s life. Considering this possibility, the only safe way to be roped up in a river is to use a special kind of PFD, called a safety (or rescue) PFD. A safety PFD is designed to double as a harness, but most importantly comprises a « quick release » handle. When pulled, this handle quickly frees the person from the rope.

3. We should always wear a helmet when working in or near a river

Yes, it does seem exaggerated. The chances of getting a head injury while gauging are probably extremely low. However, in a context where one is responsible for the entire team’s safety, there is simply no chance worth taking (recall Bird’s pyramid…). I personally decided not to wait until somebody, by a stroke of supreme bad luck, slips on a wet rock and falls on the head.

4. A basic but important reminder: if less than three persons, gauging is cancelled…

Most people already know this simple rule, which is just common sense: don’t go gauging alone. Anyways, it is much

A well-learned lessonThroughout the country, there exist several swift water

safety and rescue schools with instructors certified by the Lifesaving Society. The best way to find such organisations is to look for whitewater kayaking schools, since they usually serve both purposes. Although the Lifesaving society program is targeted specifically at kayakers, canoers and rafters, the basic concepts equally apply to us river gaugers or any practitioner working in the riparian environment. Certified instructors can usually propose a modified training appropriate for specific contexts. In my case, the above described incident was the trigger it took to organize such a formation for my group. At the end of this 2-day activity, we were asked to list the elements we found the most striking or important. Some elements were completely new or generated discussions among the 11 participants. I take this opportunity to share those elements:

1. A surprising number of issues can be solved with a simple throwbag

This is without any doubt the single element that surprised everybody. A throwbag, as the name states, is a small bag that contains a long, floating, brightly colored rope. That rope is tied to the bottom of the bag by a knot. It is an absolutely mandatory piece of equipment for any professional working in or near a river. With minimal training and practice, it is possible to throw the bag easily over long distances. It can be used in multiple fashions, for instance to assist a person who is being swept away by the current, but also to solve more complicated situations such as the case where a person has her foot entrapped between rocks (even if this person is unconscious!). When gauging, it is best to provide one throw bag per person, so that in case of emergency the person that is closest to the situation can immediately take action.

2. In a river, there is only one safe way to rope upOne might think that being tied to a rope provides

sufficient safety to allow for « testing » the feasibility of stream gauging when uncertain about the velocity. However, suppose that this rope gets caught between rocks and that the current is indeed fairly strong. In such conditions, the roped

Figure 1: A participant is practicing with the throwbag (Picture by Alain St-Arnaud, Expédition Plein Air)

Figure 2: A river safety and rescue formation involves rapids that one would never think of wading with a velocimeter, but such exercises allow for testing our limits and those of the techniques (Picture by Alain St-Arnaud, Expédition Plein Air)

Figure 3: Helmet and PFDs apply also for other situations involving proximity with the river, such as ADCP gauging.

20 WATER NEWS

easier to carry out the manipulations with another person than alone. However, two persons is not enough. Many throwbag techniques require at least two persons. In addition, in case of emergency, one person can stay with the victim while another seeks for more help.

When I first went gauging, I was not even wearing a personal flotation device. Fortunately, things have much evolved since then. Security concerns add up to the already long list of elements and material to prepare for a field trip. But there is still more: related issues such as first aid training would also be worth addressing. Field work, and perhaps especially gauging, invite accidents. While it is of course impossible to completely eliminate all risks, adequate formation and the establishment of appropriate security precautions can greatly reduce potential dangers.

Figure 4: A gauging session at the Caribou River at fairly high level, applying our new and improved safety protocol (Picture by Geneviève Labrecque)

Suite de la page 18Une leçon bien apprise

Il existe à travers le pays plusieurs écoles de sécurité et sauvetage en rivière dont les moniteurs et monitrices sont reconnus par la société de sauvetage. La meilleure façon de les trouver est de chercher une école de kayak d’eau vive, puisqu’il s’agit souvent des mêmes ressources. Bien que le programme de la société de sauvetage vise principalement les kayakistes et les canoteurs, les mêmes concepts de base s’appliquent aux jaugeurs. Plusieurs écoles de kayak offrent des cours adaptés et des formations sur mesure pour les in-tervenants en milieu riverain. Dans mon cas, il aura malheu-reusement fallu attendre l’incident décrit ci-dessus pour que je prenne l’initiative d’organiser une telle formation. À la fin de cette formation, on nous a demandé de lister les éléments qui nous ont le plus marqués. Je partage ici les trois éléments les plus marquants qui étaient totalement nouveaux pour tous les participants (au nombre de 11):

1. On peut régler un tas de problèmes avec un sac à corde

C’est sans contredit l’élément qui a marqué le plus de gens. Un sac à corde c’est, comme le nom l’indique, une pe-tite poche qui contient une longue corde flottante de cou-leur voyante fixée au fond du sac par un nœud. C’est un outil absolument indispensable lors du travail en rivière. Avec un minimum d’entrainement, le sac est facile à lancer sur une longue distance. Il peut être utilisé pour porter secours à une personne qui est emportée par le courant, mais aussi à une personne (même inconsciente!) dont le pied se serait coincé entre deux roches. Lors d’une sortie de jaugeage, il faut pré-voir un sac pour chaque personne, afin de s’assurer que la personne la plus proche d’une éventuelle victime ait toujours un sac à corde à portée de main.

2. Il existe une seule façon réellement sécuritaire d’être attaché en rivière.

On pourrait croire qu’être attaché par une corde constitue un moyen sécuritaire de « tester » la vitesse de l’eau en cas d’incertitude. Par contre, il est possible que la corde se coince

Figure 1: Une participante se pratique au lancé du sac à corde. Idéalement, il faut viser un peu à l’aval de la victime (Photo: Alain St-Arnaud, Expédition Plein Air).


façon, c’est souvent plus facile d’effectuer les manipulations si on est plusieurs. Mais deux, ce n’est pas suffisant. Plusieurs techniques de sauvetage à l’aide des sacs à cordes requièrent la collaboration de deux personnes. En situation d’urgence, une personne peut rester avec la victime pendant que l’autre contacte des secours.

Lors de ma toute première sortie de jaugeage, je ne portais même pas de veste de flottaison. On peut dire que les choses ont bien évolué depuis. Les aspects de sécurité s’ajoutent à la longue liste de choses à prévoir pour les tra-vaux de terrain. Et encore : il y aurait lieu d’aborder aussi la question du secourisme et des premiers soins de base. Les travaux de terrains en hydrologie, en particulier le jaugeage, sont propices aux accidents de toutes sortes. S’il n’est pas possible d’éliminer totalement le danger, une formation de sécurité et sauvetage en rivière ainsi que l’instauration d’ha-bitudes sécuritaires peuvent toutefois réduire grandement ce danger.

entre deux roches. À ce moment, si le courant est fort, la per-sonne se retrouve plaquée contre le fond de la rivière et la corde devient un danger à éliminer. La seule façon réellement sécuritaire d’être attaché pour marcher en rivière est d’utili-ser une version spéciale de la veste de flottaison individuelle, conçue spécialement dans ce but. Ce type de veste fait office de harnais et est surtout munie d’une « déclenche rapide». Cette déclenche permet de se débarrasser rapidement de la corde si jamais cette dernière se coince.

3. On devrait porter un casque lorsque l’on travaille près d’une rivière

Oui, ça peut sembler exagéré. Le risque de se blesser à la tête en jaugeant une rivière est probablement infime. Par contre, dans un contexte où nous sommes responsables de ce qui arrive à d’autres, il vaut mieux ne prendre aucune chance. Personnellement, j’ai décidé de ne pas attendre que quelqu’un, par une extrême malchance, glisse sur une roche mouillée, se cogne la tête et se blesse gravement.

4. Un rappel de base : si on est moins de trois, on n’y va pas…La plupart des gens connaissent cette règle, qui relève

du gros bon sens : on ne va pas jauger tout seul. De toute

Figure 4: Un jaugeage de la rivière Caribou à haut niveau, avec le nouveau protocole de sécurité (Photo: Geneviève Labrecque).

Figure 2: La formation inclut des exercices dans des sections de rapides où personne ne s’aventurerait à jauger à gué mais qui permettent de tester les limites des techniques enseignées (Photo: Alain St-Arnaud, Expédition Plein Air).

Figure 3: Le port du VFI et du casque s’applique aussi au jaugeage à l’ADCP!

22 WATER NEWS

Many of the recent protests about oil pipelines have focussed on the threat to water supplies. These fears are not with-out some merit as history has shown that pipelines do sometime leak and rivers, lakes and oceans can be contaminated.

In July of 2016 225,000 litres of heavy crude leaked from a Husky oil pipeline. About 40% or 90,000 litres flowed into the North Saskatchewan River upstream of Battleford Saskatch-ewan. The break was blamed on ground movement triggered by heavy rain, poor drainage and weak soil conditions. This shut down North Battleford’s drinking water treatment plant and affected or increased the concern about drinking water for all the downstream communities.

Oil spills are only one threat to our drinking water sup-plies. Many people simply do not trust the drinking water quality for our major cities with in some cases valid reasons. It was not that long ago that the water fountain at my son’s school and daycare were jammed open every morning to reduce the amount of lead in the drinking water. This concern continues to be reflected in the increased sales of bottled water, water filters and distilling equipment.

Not that these concerns are new. The Shoal Lake Aqueduct which supplies Winnipeg’s water was built as a direct response to poor well water quality and the water bourne diseases intro-duced into the water supply network from the Red River. As water treatment and sanitation improved through the 20th cen-tury many of the deadly water bourne diseases of the past, such as typhoid and cholera, faded into memory.

Better science has allowed us to identify new risks such as, Giardia and Cryptosporidium, that aren’t destroyed with con-ventional treatment. Cryptosporidium parvum is a relatively newly described human pathogen. The first human case was reported in 1976, and until 1983 only 18 cases of human crypto-sporidiosis had been reported in the world’s literature.

However, intervening years, an increasing numbers of cases have been reported. This rise reflects both an increased recogni-tion of Cryptosporidium as a human pathogen and an increase in the number of persons with suppressed immune systems. Milwaukee’s experienced a deadly water quality event in 1993 where Cryptosporidium in the drinking water supply was said to have been the principal cause of around 100 deaths in the population, and sickened as many as 40,000?

In the end the city’s two treatment plants were upgraded with ozone systems to prevent any recurrences of the problem

Bon nombre des manifestations récentes entourant les oléoducs ont porté sur la menace qui pèse sur nos réseaux d’alimen-tation en eau. Ces craintes n’étaient pas sans un certain fondement. L’histoire nous a appris que parfois les fuites des pipelines peuvent

contaminer nos rivières, nos lacs et nos océans.En juillet 2016, en tout 225 000 litres de pétrole brut lourd

ont fui d’un oléoduc de l’entreprise pétrolière Husky. Environ 40 % ou 90 000 litres se sont déversés dans la Rivière Saska-tchewan Nord en amont de Battleford, en Saskatchewan. La rupture a été attribuée à un mouvement de terrain déclen-ché par de fortes précipitations, un mauvais drainage et de faibles conditions du sol. Cela a provoqué la fermeture de la station de production d’eau potable de North Battleford et a suscité des inquiétudes ou a exacerbé les préoccupations à propos de l’eau potable des collectivités en aval.

Les déversements de pétrole ne sont qu’une des menaces qui pèsent sur nos réserves d’eau potable. Bien des gens n’ont tout simplement pas confiance en la qualité de l’eau potable pour nos principales villes, dans certains cas pour d’excellentes raisons. Il n’y a pas si longtemps, les fontaines d’eau à l’école de mon fils et à sa garderie étaient bloquées en position ouverte chaque matin afin de réduire la quantité de plomb dans l’eau potable. Ces préoccupations continuent de se reflé-ter dans la hausse des ventes d’eau embouteillée, de filtres à eau et des appareils de distillation.

Non pas que ces préoccupations soient récentes. L’aque-duc de Shoal Lake qui approvisionne Winnipeg en eau a été construit en réponse directe à la piètre qualité de l’eau de puits et aux maladies d’origine hydrique transmises par la rivière Rouge au réseau d’approvisionnement en eau. Étant donné que le traitement et l’assainissement de l’eau se sont améliorés tout au long du XXe siècle, bon nombre des mala-dies mortelles d’origine hydrique qui avaient cours par le passé, par exemple la fièvre typhoïde et le choléra, ne sont plus que de lointains souvenirs.

Les progrès de la science nous ont permis de repérer de nouveaux risques, tels que la giardiase et la cryptospori-diose, dont on ne peut venir à bout à l’aide de traitements traditionnels. Le Cryptosporidium parvum consiste en un agent pathogène humain décrit relativement récemment. Le premier cas chez l’humain a été signalé en 1976 et, jusqu’à 1983, seulement 18 cas de cryptosporidiose humaine avaient été déclarés dans la littérature mondiale.

• WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER? •

• QUE SAVEZ-VOUS À PROPOS DE VOTRE EAU POTABLE? •

Ramblings of an old water guy



UPCOMING EVENTS2018April 29 - May 2 // Ontario’s Water Conference & Trade Show Niagara Falls, Ontario

June 11-15 // AWWA ACE18 Las Vegas, Nevada

July 19-22 // CIP/MPPI conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

August 12-17 // 69th IEC and Local Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

2019May 5-8 // Ontario’s Water Conference & Trade Show. Ottawa, ON

July 3-6 // CIP’s Centenary conference in Ottawa, Ontario. 2020July 7-10, 2020: CIP/PIBC conference in Whistler, British Columbia.

at a cost of around $36 million.The unfortunate event at Walkerton represents the first

documented outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infection associated with a treated municipal water supply in Canada and the larg-est multi-bacterial waterborne outbreak in Canada. The various investigations and report indicated that this tragedy was the result of heavy rainfall which washed cattle manure infected with this strain of E.coli and campylobacter into a poorly protected municipal well. This resulted in the gross contamination of the water distribution system and the majority of the illnesses.

Before this, most Canadians serviced by municipal water sup-ply were fairly confident that the water entering their homes was safe, even if it had taste and odour problems.

Ironically the oil spill was not the first time North Battl-eford has been in the news concerning drinking water con-tamination. In 2001, only 11 months after the, fatal Walkerton waterborne disease outbreak, the City of North Battleford, experienced a drinking water outbreak of gastroenteritis attributed to Cryptosporidium parvum. An estimated 5,800 to 7,100 people from the Battlefords area were ill between March 20 and April 26, 2001. Hundreds of additional water consumers from other communities who had visited North Battleford, were also affected, making the total magnitude of the outbreak unknown. The underlying causes of this out-break were recognized as problems for decades before the outbreak, but neither the City of North Battleford nor the provincial regulator dealt with the evident problems.

I would like to end this rant with a final thought which is para-phrased from the Walkerton inquiry. “If we want to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring again, we have to take a serious look at how we protect and treat our municipal water.” That message is still valid. We all need to recognise the value and importance of protecting our water resources.

Continued from page 22 Suite de la page 22Cependant, au fil des ans, un nombre de plus en plus

élevé de cas ont été signalés. Cette augmentation reflète à la fois une reconnaissance accrue du Cryptosporidium en tant qu’agent pathogène humain et une hausse du nombre de personnes dont le système immunitaire est affaibli. La ville de Milwaukee a connu un incident mortel lié à la qualité de son eau en 1993. Le Cryptosporidium dans l’eau potable aurait alors été la principale cause d’environ 100 décès au sein de la population et aurait rendu malades jusqu’à 40 000 personnes.

Au bout du compte, les deux stations d’épuration de la ville ont été modernisées à l’aide de systèmes d’ozone afin de prévenir la réapparition du problème, et ce, à un coût d’environ 36 millions de dollars.

L’événement malheureux qui a frappé Walkerton repré-sente la toute première éclosion documentée d’infections à E. coli O157:H7 associée à des eaux municipales traitées au Canada et la plus vaste éclosion multibactérienne d’origine hydrique au Canada. Les diverses enquêtes et le rapport ont révélé que cette tragédie était attribuable à des pluies abondantes qui ont lessivé le fumier de bovins infecté par cette souche d’E coli et de campylobactérie pour le transporter jusqu’au puits municipal mal protégé. Cette situation a entraîné la contamination grossière du réseau de distribution d’eau et la majorité des maladies qui s’en sont suivies.

Avant cet incident, la plupart des Canadiens et des Cana-diennes desservis par les systèmes d’alimentation en eau de leur municipalité étaient passablement convaincus que l’eau du robinet était sûre, malgré certains problèmes de goût et d’odeur.

Ironiquement, mis à part ce déversement de pétrole, ce n’était pas la première fois que North Battleford faisait les man-chettes en raison d’une contamination de son eau potable. En 2001, seulement 11 mois après l’éclosion fatale de maladies d’origine hydrique à Walkerton, la ville de North Battleford a connu une éclosion de gastro-entérite liée à son eau potable, attribuable au Cryptosporidium parvum. Selon les estimations, de 5 800 à 7 100 personnes de la région de Battleford sont tombées malades entre le 20 mars et le 26 avril 2001. Des centaines d’autres personnes provenant d’autres collectivités mais ayant visité North Battleford et consommé de son eau ont été touchées elles aussi. L’ampleur de l’éclosion demeure donc inconnue, même si ses causes sous-jacentes avaient été reconnues en tant que problèmes des décennies avant que ne survienne l’éclosion. Cependant, ni la ville de North Battleford ni l’organisme de réglementation provincial ne se sont attaqués à ces problèmes évidents.

J’aimerais conclure cette longue tirade en vous faisant part d’une dernière pensée, qui consiste en une paraphrase tirée des conclusions du rapport de la Commission d’en-quête sur Walkerton. « Si nous voulons éviter que ce genre de tragédie ne se reproduise, nous devons nous pencher sérieusement sur la façon dont nous protégeons et traitons nos eaux municipales ». Ce message vaut toujours. Nous devons tous reconnaître la valeur et l’importance de la pro-tection de nos ressources hydriques.

24 WATER NEWS

It was an amazing start to the new school year! The A Team (Eh Team?) Bonnie Anderson, Billie-Jo Reid, Kimberlee Hen-derson and Jayson Childs, all Project WET Facilitators, plus

four volunteer high school students, had their hands full from before the Project WET Children’s Water Festival started at noon, until 4:45 pm when it was long over and all the materials had been packed away.

The Project WET learning activity, H2Olympics, became the draw of the day. Over 600 children attended plus 300 adults. Everybody wanted to play!

It was sunny and very hot on Sat-urday, September 16th in Aberfoyle, Ontario. Everyone was happy to play with and in the water. Everyone loved the family friendly competition: kids vs. kids, kids vs. parents and parents vs. parents!

The top scores for each H2Olympics event were set up on a poster. Players

/ BRANCH REPORT //

THEY CAME, THEY PLAYED, THEY GOT WET !

L. Nicholls, National Education Coordinator and Bonnie Anderson, Coordinating Facilitator, Ontario

“It was insane! We laughed so hard!”

“The little guys didn’t want to do little guy stuff. They wanted to be scientists!”

This little fellow was only 3 years old, but he wanted his hands on the eye drop-per to try the event Balance Beam to see how many drops of water he could put on the penny before it spilled over.


In the activity called Pole Vaulting, two players started with a clear plastic cup-full of water each. They kept add-ing pennies (sure – you still have some of those around don’t you?) to the cup until the water spilled over the edge. Due to the adhesion of the water molecules to one another, the cup of water accommodated a fair number of pennies before the water released its bonds and spilled over the edge of the cup.

These two youth learned that both concentration and steady hands are needed.

In the event Backstroke: Clipping Along, these two men enjoyed a little friend-ly competition to see who had the steadier hand and the better technique for balancing paperclips on the surface of the water.

The ‘Eh’ Team was exhausted by the end of the day as it was just con-stant visitors to the Project WET Chil-dren’s Water Festival Pavilion. Thanks go to both Nestlé Waters Canada and Nestlé Waters North America for their sponsorship, which made this hugely successful, educational event possible at their 2017 Canadian Open House.

kept coming back with more people to try their hands at the events too. Kids came back to see if their high scores were still standing. If they had been knocked out of the top spots by a higher score, they problem solved a creative new way to improve upon their previous score.

Special early childhood activities had been prepared for the 3-7 year-olds, but no, they wanted to be scien-tists too and do the big kid activities. By using sneaky teaching, the Project WET H

2Olympics events set up learn-ers to play with the chemical nature of water molecules, specifically cohesion and adhesion.

26 WATER NEWS

/ BRANCH REPORT //

› Designing Wastewater Infra-structure for Small Communities Presenters: Aline Bennett, MASc, P.Eng. & Tyler Barber, MASc, EIT, Opus International Consultants Canada

› Mainstreaming Green Infra-structure in Vancouver Presenter: Melina Scholefield, P. Eng., Manager, Green Infrastructure Implementation, City of Vancouver

• November Water Talks › Too Much and Too Little Water

– Innovative Ways to Adapt Presenter: Dr. Hans Schreier, Pro-fessor, Land and Water Systems, University of British Columbia

› Title: Unraveled – A Candid Look at Drinking Water and the City of Vancouver’s Water Quality Monitoring Program Presenters: Preet Bal, Water Design Branch, City of Vancouver

› Why Do Aerospace Engineers Get to Have All The Fun? A Look at the State-of-the-art of Storm Water Management

BRANCH ACTIVITIESPriority Goal 1: Improved communications among water resources professionals.• Significant preparations are under-

way for the 2018 National Conference (http://www.conference.cwra.org/), which will be held in Victoria from May 29-31. The conference theme is, “Our Common Water Future: Build-ing Resilience through Innovation”. Our Branch is excited at this opportu-nity to communicate and collaborate with water resources professionals from across the nation and abroad.

• Our SYP Vancouver Chapter has done a tremendous job of reach-ing out to young (and old) water resources professionals and has organized two very successful Water Talks (September and November 2017).

• Increased collaboration with CSH › The BC Branch is collaborating

BRANCH UPDATEBRITISH COLUMBIA

ONTARIO QUEBEC NOVA SCOTIA NEW BRUNSWICK

MANITOBA BRITISHCOLUMBIA

PRINCE EDWARDISLAND

SASKATCHEWAN

ALBERTA

NUNAVUT

NEWFOUNDLANDAND LABRADOR

NORTHWESTTERRITORIES

YUKON

Flags of the canadianprovinces and

territories.

Executive

President* Michael Florendo*

Vice-President Matthew Graham

Past-President* Tamsin Lyle*

Finance Chair Lawrence Francois

Treasurer Nikou Jalayeri

Secretary Craig Sutherland

Communications Navratna Sharma

SYP Chair Nilufar Islam

National Director Stefan Joyce

* also National Director

Continued on page 27

with other local professional associations to increase and share opportunities to commu-nicate with local water resources professionals.

› Check out our branch website (www.cwrabc.ca) for updates on events, seminars, and informa-tion on how to get involved.

Priority Goal 2: Enhanced understanding of water and integrated water management.Our SYP Vancouver chapter organized the following presentations as part of their Water Talks events in September and November:• September Water Talks

› Environmental Change Impacts on Streams and Watersheds Presenter: Dr. Jason Leach, Assistant Professor, Depart-ment of Geography, Simon Fra-ser University


/ BRANCH REPORT //

ACTIVITIESPriority Goal 1: Improved communi-

cations among water resources profes-sionals.

Priority Goal 2: Enhanced under-standing of water and integrated water management.

Priority Goal 3: Increased profile for the organization.

Priority Goal 4: Increased role in inter-national water management activities.

Priority Goal 5: Effective management and development of the association.

Student and Young Professionals (SYP) (Priority Goals 1, 2 and 3)

The Edmonton SYP regular ly hosted Blue Drinks events in part-nership with the Canadian Water Network, Western Canada Water Environment Association and AWWA Western Canada Section. The Cal-gary SYP held two (2) Blue Drinks events during the spring and sum-mer at the Rose & Crown Pub.

Project WETAlberta Environment and Parks

(AEP) staff were trained as Project WET Facilitators but their job descrip-tions have changed significantly due to departmental reorganization. As the reorganization becomes clearer, a Coordinator will most likely be named from the staff at Bow Habitat Station in Calgary this coming winter. Joanne Barwise and Glenn Gustafson (AEP) will remain as coordinator-contacts for Project WET in the interim.

2017 National Conference (Priority Goals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

The National 2017 conference was held in Lethbridge, Alberta on June 4-7, 2017. The conference theme Water: A Continental Asses. In addition to AB branch volunteers, individuals stepped forward for the planning and program committees from Saskatchewan, Mani-toba, BC, the U.S. and the Interna-tional Joint Commission (IJC). Several workshops occurred before and after the conference including HEC-RAS, Hoskin Scientific, PCSWMM, NASH, and HydRology. The conference had over 250 delegates attend from all back-grounds to listen to over 80 speakers. The awards ceremony included the announcement of a new Rick Ross Schol-arship in honour of the years of services provided by our long serving past Exec-utive Director Rick Ross.

2018 AB Branch Annual ConferenceThe Annual AB Branch Confer-

ence is being held this year in Red Deer, Alberta March 25 - 27, 2018. The conference theme is: Mine the Data Mind the Resource. The conference will highlight the importance of our efforts to manage our water resourc-es to provide robust and risk based infrastructure designs that integrate climate change considerations, and to forecast flood and drought events with the most reasonable accuracy possi-ble. The call for abstracts has been announced and early bird registration will close February 16, 2018.

Alberta Branch Events Website (Priority Goals 1 and 5)

The Alberta Branch has established a permanent website address and email domains to communicate events and conferences to its members rather than to establish temporary domains specif-ic for any event. This improves stabil-ity for individuals seeking a place to find information on branch events. For the Branch’s 2015 annual conference a link was provided for individuals to download the “guidebook” app for mobile devices and download the conference program onto their mobile device.

Website link: www.cwra-ab-events.org

Lunch-N-Learn/Webinar Sessions (Priority Goals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

There were four webinars hosted by the Alberta branch in 2017. These webi-nars were well attended and spurred conversations around the factors affect-ing our water. The topics included:• Lessons learned after the Canmore

2013 debris floods;• Wildfire research;• Wildfire impacts on hydrology and

water quality; and• Drought/climate change effects on

forests.A webinar questionnaire was initi-

ated by two of our branch members to discover what our membership would like to hear more of. The results of the webinar were analysed and will aid in the planning of upcoming 2018 webinars.

For more information contact Peter Morgan ([email protected])



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BRANCH UPDATEALBERTA

Executive

President Peter Morgan

Vice-President Robyn Andrishak

Secretary Sarah Fruin

Treasurer Tyler Schafer

Past President Rick Carnduff

WET Representative Alida Nadege Thiombiano

National Directors are A Peter Morgan, Rick Carnduff, Monica Wagner and Andrew Chan.

28 WATER NEWS

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BRANCH ACTIVITIESCommunications

Virginia Wittrock continues to send email updates to our members about local water-related events. Jeremy Pit-tman continues to manage our webi-nar web page.

SYP Activities The Saskatoon members of the

SYP toured the Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant on October 26th (See Photos). SYP members are encour-aged to get in touch with Zilefac Elvis Asong ([email protected]) or Richard Helmle ([email protected]), our SYP leads in Saska-toon, for information on upcoming events. Future events will be coor-dinated with the GIWS student and post-doctoral candidate group. New members are welcome!

Webinar Series The Saskatchewan Branch is

pleased to be hosting another full slate of noon-hour webinars this year starting Tuesday, November 14th. Thanks to Curtis Hallborg, our branch treasurer, for organizing the series, and to of this year’s presenters. Go to our web page for details and registration: http://cwraskbranch.wixsite.com/webi-nars

The following webinar topics are planned for this year:

• History of the South Saskatchewan River Project and the M1 Canal Rehabilitation – November 14th

• Environmental Flows for Large River Deltas –December 12th

• Advances in Ice-Jam Forecasting – January 9th

• Moose Jaw River Watershed Stew-ards – February 13th

• Balancing Act: Multipurpose Water Management and Species at Risk (A Lake Diefenbaker Case Study) – March 13th

• International Water Experiences: Future Considerations for Shaping Canadian Water Management – April 10th

• DUC Smith Project Naturalization/Decommissioning – May 8th

• NASA SWOT Mission – June 12th

ICID 69th Annual Meeting and Conference

The International Conference on “Innovative and Sustainable Agri-water Management: Adapting to a Variable and Changing Climate ” together with the 69th International Executive Coun-cil Meeting of the International Com-mission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) will be held August 12-18, 2018 at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The conference website is avail-able at: http://www.icid2018.org, find it on twitter at: @CWRA_Flows | #ICID2018

Executive

President Jaime Hogan

Vice-President and CSHS Liaison: Bruce Davison

Secretary Brad Uhrich

Treasurer Curtis Hallberg

Past President Bob Halliday

Communications Virginia Wittrock and Jeremy Pittman

Project WET Liaison Brian Abrahamson

National Directors Russell Boals, Dirk de Boer, and Brian Abrahamson

National Directors are Russell Boals, Brian Abrahamson and Dirk de Boer.


/ BRANCH REPORT //ONTARIO QUEBEC NOVA SCOTIA NEW BRUNSWICK


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BRANCH UPDATEMANITOBA

BRANCH ACTIVITIESThe Manitoba Branch is pleased to

be hosting the 2018 national mid-term meeting in Winnipeg. The theme of the workshop is Water Without Borders: Breaking down barriers to achieve a more integrated approach to water-shed management. This one-day event will explore the realities of water and watershed management in a multi-juris-dictional, multi-cultural and dynamic socio-economic environment. Perspectives will be provided on international and national water governance, watershed planning, and the engagement of people in water and watershed management.

While focussed on planning for the 2018 mid-term and the 2020 annual conference, the Branch has continued its work on CWRA’s five priority goals.

Priority Goal 1: Improved communications among water resources professionals

The Manitoba Branch continued to deliver its successful luncheon series with regular presentations from water experts from across Manitoba. These in-person events draw approximately 40 water pro-fessionals and students from a variety of disciplines. Topics range from technical presentations to emerging provincial poli-cies that will affect water resource man-agement. These events also provide a reg-ular networking opportunity for Manitoba’s “water” community.

Priority Goal 2: Enhanced understanding of water and integrated water management

Building on the success in other CWRA branches, the Manitoba Branch suc-cessfully developed and implemented a wastewater-focussed webinar series that complemented the Branch’s in-person lun-cheon talks. These low-cost information sharing sessions effectively engaged water professionals in Winnipeg and beyond; providing individuals and company units the opportunity to gather in their own offices and explore the latest develop-ments in wastewater management.

While webinars and luncheon speakers focus on Manitoba’s water professionals, the Board is also com-mitted to water education for students. The Branch has invested in the devel-opment of a curriculum guide that allows teachers to easily connect Proj-ect WET activities to their classroom work. The curriculum guide has been developed for kindergarten through grade 12 and are available for free. The Board is also seeking corporate sponsorships to offset workshop costs.

Priority Goal 3: Increased profile for the organization

Expanding the reach of CWRA and engaging in new partnerships is a fundamental goal of the Manitoba Branch. Working towards this, the Branch has made efforts to engage with other facets of water resource management, including wildlife-focussed organizations. In this edition of the Water News, there is a profile article on the Prairie Habitat Joint Ven-ture and its Science Committee. While a familiar organization to some, one

may not immediately think of a water-fowl organization as a good partner in water management. By building an awareness and identifying jointly held water goals, the Manitoba Branch is attempting to increase the profile of partners, and in turn, CWRA.

Further, by engaging with a broad spectrum of partners in water man-agement, new funding and program opportunities may evolve. To this end, funding applications have been sub-mitted to water quality and wildlife granting organizations to support the implementation of Project WET in Manitoba, directly addressing Priority Goal 2.

Priority Goal 4: Increased role in international water management activities

In development of the Water With-out Borders workshop agenda, the Manitoba Branch is actively seeking to engage international participation and to bring an international water governance perspective to workshop attendees. This work will assist in building partnerships and ultimately influence on international water man-agement activities.

Priority Goal 5: Effective Management and Development of the Association

In 2017, the Manitoba Branch held eight board meetings and representa-tives from Manitoba actively participat-ed on the National Board and several of its committees.

2017-2018 Executive

President Stephen Carlyle

Vice-President Nicholas Kehler

Secretary Melissa Haresign

Treasurer Dave Fuchs

Past President Eric-Lorne Blais

National Directors for 2017/2018 are Eric-Lorne Blais, Stephen Carlyle, Ute Holweger, and Trish Stadnyk.

30 WATER NEWS

/ BRANCH REPORT //

PAST ACTIVITIESPriority Goal 1: Improved Communications among Water Resources Professionals• The branch Communications com-

mittee has continued regular email updates to members about Ontario Branch activities and continues to focus on the Ontario Branch News webpage and CWRA Google cal-endar updates about upcoming water-related events in Ontar-io. The Branch twitter account @CWRAONT was used regularly to promote issues related to effec-tive water management and about branch events.

• Representatives of CSHS (Ferdous Ahmed) and CANCID (Rebecca Shortt) have been participating in branch board meetings

• the 2016 – 2017 Ontario Branch Mentorship Program is underway, and includes networking events, one-on-one mentoring sessions and group peer mentoring meet-ings. The new session of the men-toring program is underway and paired mentor/mentee relation-ships have been set

Priority Goal 2: Enhanced Understanding of Water and Integrated Water Management

The Ontario Branch hosted a HEC-RAS 2D training session at the TRCA Pioneer Village venue. The event was

Canada in hosting a series of events surrounding floodplain mapping and risk management, to be held in Vaughan, ON, in March 2018.

Priority Goal 3: Increased Profile for the Organization• The Ontario Branch is deep into

planning for the 2019 National Conference, and news will be forth-coming in the coming quarter with regards to venue and theme(s).

Priority Goal 4: Increased Role in International Water Management Activities• The Ontario Branch’s annual World

Water Day roundtable discus-sion/expert panel event is being planned. We are currently soliciting for speakers and will be announc-ing a save the date with a prelimi-nary list of speakers in the coming months.

Priority Goal 5: Effective Management and Development of the Association• The branch continues to partner

with Blue Drink in Toronto and Ottawa in assisting to host network-ing events.

sold out and received very positive reviews from attendees. This is an event that the Ontario Branch hopes to host annually, with focus on advances and hydraulic modelling (typically HEC-RAS related modules or new features).

Priority Goal 3: Increased Profile for the Organization

Priority Goal 4: Increased Role in International Water Management Activities

Priority Goal 5: Effective Management and Development of the Association• Partnering with other water-based

organizations in the hosting of water themes networking events for young professionals

PENDING ACTIVITIESPriority Goal 1: Improved Communications among Water Resources Professionals• Continued use of email newsletters

and social media in communicating issues and events to our members and social media followers

Priority Goal 2: Enhanced Understanding of Water and Integrated Water Management• Partnering with Ontario Ministry of

Natural Resources and Forestry and the National Research Council of

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Executive and National Directors

President Jeff Hirvonen*

Vice-President Nathan Garland

Secretary Hanna Daniels

Treasurer Gail Faveri

National Director & Past-President Steve Brown*

National Director Nancy Davy*

* also National Director



BRITISH COLUMBIABRANCH UPDATE

/ BRANCH REPORT //

Technology in The 21st Century Presenter: Brandon Walker, P.Eng., Regional Engineer for Western Canada, Advanced Drainage Systems

› Title: Energy Recovery from Metro Vancouver’s Water and Wastewater Systems Presenter: Lillian Zaremba, P. Eng, M.A.Sc., Senior Project Engineer, Utility Research and Innovation, Metro Vancouver

• Upcoming seminar topics include: › Groundwater sustainability and

groundwater-surface water inter-actions

› River Restoration, Lower Main-land

› Drought/Water Scarcity › Urban Forest Hydrology / Stem-

flow from Trees › Water Resources Asset Manage-

ment › Potential training opportuni-

ties

PRIORITY GOAL 3: INCREASED PROFILE FOR THE ORGANIZATION.• The Branch is working closely with

our Executive Director to iden-tify opportunities to increase and expand our National and Provincial profile

• Connections to other water infra-structure related organizations: › Opportunities to collaborate

with BC Water and Waste Asso-ciation (BCWWA)

› Continued involvement with Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB), Fraser Basin Coun-cil Floodplain Committee and POLIS water leaders.

› Participation of BC Branch Flood Hazard Management Committee chairs on the Fraser Basin Council Joint Program Committee for Inte-grated Flood Hazard Management

› Joint networking and techni-cal events with local chapters of CSCE.

• Focus on increasing branch mem-bership › Reconnecting with past individu-

al and corporate members

› Ident i f y ing new members through referrals from existing individual and corporate mem-bers

PRIORITY GOAL 5: EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION.• Monthly Board of Directors meet-

ings by conference call with in-per-son meetings once per quarter

• Very active SYP and more new board members over the past few years bode well to ensure long-term sustainability of board

• Development of other SYP chapters across the province, specifically in Victoria and north region

• Active search for replacements to ensure long-term sustainability of board

• Finances are stable• Increasing communication with

members, in part thanks to Nation-al Communications and addition-al branch volunteers assisting our Communications Director

• River engineering • Hydrologic studies • Hydraulic structures • Flood protection • Watershed studies • Ice engineering • Fish passage • Numerical modeling

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Water NewsJanuary 2015

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