The Springbank Community Association (SCA) has added its voice to the chorus of opposition to the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1). In mid-June, SCA approved five position statements regarding SR1. SCA president Karin Hunter said the association was spurred to take a position after changes to its board in March. “The new board has taken a second look at the SR1 project,” Hunter said. “Basically, to this point the SCA has stayed out of it, but once we took a better and more thorough look at the project, we came to understand it impacts not just the impacted land owners but our community as a whole.” SCA released five positions statements raising concerns about SR1 June 12. The statements highlight questions about lost property tax revenue for Rocky View County (RVC), the loss of valuable developable land, a lack of positive outcomes for Springbank and other upstream communities, as well as uncertainty regarding negative social and environmental outcomes associated with the dry dam. “The quickest way to sum it up would be to say this is not a fair deal,” Hunter said. “What’s happening here is you have a huge swath of land taken out of a very imminently developable area to benefit a neighbouring municipality, but with zero benefit to any of the communities in the direct area.” Hunter said whatever happens with flood mitigation, Calgary will come out the winner. In SCA’s view, SR1 results in a win-lose scenario for communities west of the city. As an alternative, the association is advocating the province reconsider the proposed MacLean Creek (MC1) option. “An upstream dam project, such as MC1, continues to provide flood protection for the City of Calgary but also provides numerous benefits to other stakeholders that SR1 does not,” Hunter, on behalf of SCA, wrote in a letter dated June 15 to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency – which is reviewing the SR1 project. The letter – which was also sent to Premier Rachel Notley, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, MLA’s Leela Aheer and Cam Westhead, Ministers Brian Mason, Shae Anderson and Ricardo Miranda, and members of RVC council – outlined SCAs position regarding SR1 and preference for MC1. So far, Hunter said she has not received a response. “It’s very disappointing,” she said. “I would say this speaks to a general unwillingness from the Alberta government in particular to engage with the communities who are being most impacted by this.”
