Report shows Red Deerians consuming less water, more fuel

Work is continuing on improving the City of Red Deer’s Environmental Master Plan.

A presentation was made to council this week outlining work done in 2016 and where the City stands on different metrics.

Nancy Hackett, Environmental Initiatives Supervisor, says the City is achieving many of its goals, specifically in the areas of water consumption, water quality, water losses and man-made green areas.

For example, the City’s goal for water consumption in 2020 is 189 L/capital/day. Consumption has dropped from 242 in 2009, to 203 in 2015 and to 192 last year.

“The one we’re not on track for is fuel consumption. Our community year after year is buying more gasoline and diesel,” Hackett says. “It’s an imperfect measure because we don’t know where people are driving, where they’re coming from and when they’re filling up their car, but in terms of looking at that data and seeing it go up, we would hope people were driving less.”

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Ideally, Hackett says, motorists could become better at taking shorter trips, carpooling, cycling or taking the bus. Increased purchasing of electric or hybrid vehicles could also do the trick.

In 2009, drivers were consuming 1,257 L/capita. That number ballooned to 1,344 in 2015 and 1,424 in 2016. The original target for 2015 was 1,156 L/capita and no other long-term targets have been set.

Elsewhere on the environmental landscape, city council also received a report this week on pharmaceutical levels with the local watershed.

Tim Ainscough, Environmental Services Manager, says the department was tasked a year ago with researching what other municipalities are doing to test pharmaceutical levels in their waterways. Research concluded only Calgary and Edmonton are doing actual testing, and how much they’re doing so is minimal.

“There are a large number of them, 2,000 to 3,000 different types of pharmaceuticals, so to go out and measure all of them would be nearly impossible. To date, there have not been any recommendations made on which ones are potentially significant or not,” he says. “The big thing is right now there are no indications there are health risks based upon what’s in our water system.”

In the meantime, Ainscough says the City will continue to monitor the situation and encourage ways for residents to mitigate the risk of pharmaceuticals affecting the water supply by not flushing them down your toilet and by taking them to a pharmacy so they can be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way.

A refreshed Environmental Master Plan is expected to be presented to council in the first half of 2018.