Retreat of glaciers could affect cities in West

New data released by Natural Resources Canada on Wednesday shows that glaciers in Canada's High Arctic and in the mountains of Western Canada have shrunk significantly over the past 50 years, a change experts say could have consequences for municipalities that depend on the run-off for drinking water, irrigation and power generation.

By Mark Iype, Postmedia News September 22, 2010

"It's pretty clear that glaciers are continuing to retreat," Sarah Boon, a professor of geography at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, said Wednesday. "And that's going to have a major impact on water resources in the future."

Boon has conducted her own extensive research on glacier melt, including on the Devon Ice Cap in Nunavut, which was included in the data. She said several Western Canadian cities could be affected if the amount of water from spring and summer glacier run-off is significantly reduced.

The Bow River, which rises in Banff National Park from the Bow Glacier (which wasn't included in the study) is one major waterway that is susceptible to reduced run-off from glacial retreat. The Bow supplies drinking water to Calgary and other communities and irrigation districts as it meanders east across the Prairies, Boon said.

The research analyzed six glaciers in Western Canada.

Researchers measured data on the Helm Glacier in B.C.'s Garibaldi Provincial Park; the Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park; and the Place Glacier in the southern Coast Mountains of B.C.

In the Arctic, data were analyzed on three glaciers in Nunavut: the Devon Ice Cap on Devon Island; the Meighen Ice Cap on Meighen Island; and the White Glacier on Axel Heiberg Island.

As part of Canada's national glacier-climate observing system, the researchers analyzed data compiled between 1960 and 2007.

But Boon, who conducted her own long-term research on the Devon Ice Cap, said one of the most significant findings of the study is that glaciers in both the Arctic and in the mountains are showing continual retreat.

"Glaciers in the mountains and glaciers in the Arctic are very different," she said. "But the ones in the mountains are more sensitive to changes."

Glaciers in the High Arctic are larger and cover a wider area than the glaciers in Canada's mountains, which extend into British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon. In the mountains, snow cover is much more extensive, while the Arctic is basically a desert, with very little precipitation.

Boon said the ice sheets in the mountains are the ones that could most directly affect the population by limiting water resources.

Dan Moore, a geography professor at the University of British Columbia, said even if glacier melt accounts for only a small percentage of what ends up in reservoirs, it can have a critical impact on power generation.

"Snow melt is the main source for the reservoirs, but it is the glaciers that get you through the long, hot dry spells in the summer," he said.

Moore is currently finalizing a report for BC Hydro on the effect of a loss of run-off on power production.

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Retreat of glaciers could affect cities in West

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