The province's water licensing system is swamped, says the auditor general, with some applicants waiting more than seven years for approvals to take water.
Acting auditor general Merwan Saher published his review of the provincial government this week. His audit found that Alberta Environment took too long to issue new water licenses and had more than 3,500 applications waiting in the queue.
"Should the backlog continue to grow," he wrote, "Environment's application processing may not be timely … Applicants may proceed without proper authorization or abandon proposed projects."
Saher also called on the department to step up its monitoring of water licenses and wetland restoration through Ducks Unlimited.
Backlog at the office
Water is critical to Alberta's economic growth, Saher wrote, as well as the health of its ecosystems and people. His department audited the province's water license records from July 2008 to June 2009.
The province had some 3,535 water license applications awaiting approval as of last June, he found, up from 2,847 in July 2008. The department finished just 1,560 applications during the study period. About 75 per cent of the backlogged applications were leftovers from previous years, suggesting the department could not keep up with demand.
Some applicants had waited more than six years for their applications to be reviewed or renewed, Saher found, putting them at risk of breaking the law as their licenses ran out. He also found many that did not report their water use in a timely manner, breaking the conditions of their license. The water department had no system in place to spot late or erroneous water reports, making it tough to enforce their licenses.
Saher also called for clarity on the department's wetland restoration policy. The province's wetland restoration guide says that developers should create at least three units of wetland for every one destroyed. Alberta Environment has accepted plans that create as little as one unit of wetland per one destroyed without explanation.
Bigger picture missed
The province has accepted all of Saher's criticisms, said Cara Tobin, spokesperson for Alberta Environment, but disputes some of his measurements.
The vast majority of the backlogged applications are ones that the applicant abandoned, she said as an example. "We could have them for seven years, and if the applicant doesn't follow up on [them] or abandons the issue, we have not in the past closed them."
The department will now be more aggressive in closing these files. It is also working on a new online water use reporting system for more efficient reporting, as well as a formal wetland policy to create standards for wetland replacement.
The province's wetland replacement program is relatively new, said Pat Kehoe, St. Albert resident and manager of Alberta operations for Ducks Unlimited, and the department is learning as it goes. The three-to-one replacement ratio is a national standard, he explained, and can safely be lowered if a developer takes extra conservation measures on-site — say by preserving a chunk of wetland.
While the auditor raised a number of important issues, said Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association, he also missed some big ones. The province was not setting aside enough water to protect river ecosystems, for example, and had no formal wetland policy. "We have no known way to replace peatlands," she said, and those represent 40 per cent of the wetlands in the oilsands region.
The auditor's report is available at www.oag.ab.ca.
