Environmental - Water
Macleod Dixon's water law practice is based on extensive experience in complex legal issues involving the allocation of scarce water quantities in Alberta and elsewhere.
Many areas of Alberta increasingly experience limited water availability due to physical or legal constraints, or both. For instance, the South Saskatchewan River Basin in southern Alberta, where over 20,000 water diversion licences have been granted, is under a moratorium prohibiting the licensing of new diversion rights. Governments are also imposing Instream Flow Need (IFN) requirements that will restrict water diversions associated with Alberta's Athabasca oil sands development and bitumen upgrading.
Related Areas:
Energy & Resources
Environmental
Regulatory
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE
Macleod Dixon has acted in matters that include:
- Interventions before a Natural Resources Conservation Board - Canadian Federal Environmental Assessment Agency Joint Review Panel application for the Highwood-Little Bow Water Diversion Project in the Highwood and Little Bow basins;
- Interventions before a Natural Resources Conservation Board - Canadian Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office Joint Review Panel application for the Pine Coulee Water Management Project in the Willow Creek basin;
- Various appearances as Appellant's counsel or respondent's counsel before the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board with respect to the issuance of water diversion licences in various basins;
- Counsel to the owner of water withdrawal facilities in a National Park to assist in obtaining a Water Permit for the facilities and to defend a Court action by downstream users to set aside the permit;
- Counsel to the owner of diversion works in a dispute over scarce water use for a large petrochemical facility in the Red Deer basin;
- Counsel to a large, private, potable water utility with respect to water licensing and other issues;
- Counsel to a the vendor of a water reservoir and associated works developed for enhanced oil recover (water flooding);
- Counsel to the purchase of four hydroelectric facilities in the Columbia River basin;
- Negotiating and drafting of water sharing agreement among facility owners and users in a National Park;
- Membership and active participation in the Highwood Public Advisory Committee for the Highwood Water Management Plan - Phase I;
- Advisory services to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on the modernization of the Water Resources Act;
- Counsel to fisheries interests on water diversion issues for a large scale coal mine; and
- Negotiating and drafting agreements for the transfer of water licences and associated diversion works among agricultural interests and industrial facilities.
