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Alberta’s ‘back door’ plan to free up billions of litres of water for coal mines raises alarm
Amid concerns about droughts, selenium pollution, at-risk species and Indigenous consultation, the Alberta government is poised to allow coal companies to undercut a functioning water market 20 min read
Rachel Herbert is the fourth generation of her family to ranch in the Porcupine Hills. Her kids will be the fifth. The eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains are visible from the family’s land: rolling prairie carpeted with native grasses where her cattle graze under big Alberta skies.
The Alberta government’s rescindment of a longstanding coal policy, leaving previously protected lands available to open-pit coal mining, has her concerned about her family’s livelihood. Mines could be tucked just behind Plateau Mountain, not far from the Herbert family ranch.
“They gave away the forest, they gave away the land.
They gave away the rivers, they gave away the sand.
They gave away the silver, they gave away the gold.
They would have given away the air, but the air they couldn’t hold.”
Substitute coal for gold and a burgeoning Alberta tragedy unfolds.
Behind the scenes, quietly, in the halls of power, with active lobbyists for Australian coal companies and compliant politicians in the UCP government there are moves afoot to change, irrevocably, the Eastern Slopes of Alberta. The first step was to rescind the Coal Policy, a forward-thinking governance to restrict coal development to a few places and protect the rest of the Eastern Slopes. Albertans strongly agreed with the policy then and still do, because of higher watershed, biodiversity, aesthetic and recreational values. Throwing the door open to coal exploration has created a coal-rush, with three large Australian-owned coal mining companies racing to submit applications and