Wapiti River Water Management Plan

Compass is pleased to share that the Wapiti River Water Management Plan (WRWMP) has been officially implemented in the Wapiti River Basin, Alberta. The plan provides water allocation guidance for Alberta Environment and Parks and the Alberta Energy Regulator that will help to balance the needs of municipal water supply, industry uses, and a healthy aquatic ecosystem.

In recent years, the Wapiti River Basin has experienced rapid urban growth and increasing forestry, agricultural, and oil and gas development, resulting in greater pressure on the demand for water. This Plan was developed in response to long-standing concerns about water diversions, particularly during winter low flow periods.

To inform the development of the WRWMP, a multi-stakeholder committee was formed with the purpose of seeking consensus on limits to Wapiti River water diversions. Members of the committee included representatives from local municipalities, Indigenous communities, industry stakeholders, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Mighty Peace Watershed Alliance, and Alberta Environment and Parks.

Compass was contracted to design and implement a Structured Decision Making (SDM) process to inform the deliberations of the committee. The SDM process was used to recommend a Water Conservation Objective which sets maximum thresholds for water use at various river flows. Compass first supported the committee with a SDM “decision sketch” which involves walking quickly through the first few steps of the SDM process to define the decision, clarify decision objectives, scope alternatives, and identify key-trade-offs and information needs. Informed by the decision sketch, Compass provided the Committee with Decision Process Guidelines that are a ‘road map’ for carrying out the decision process. The committee then independently carried out a suite of focused studies to fill in information gaps over a couple of field seasons. Once studies were complete, Compass was contracted again to support the completion of the SDM process which involved helping the committee refine performance measures, develop alternatives, and facilitate deliberations to reach consensus recommendations for the WRWMP.