MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county’s municipal planning commission (MPC) will be asking the National Resource Conservation Board (NRCB) for information on projected water usage at a proposed expanded dairy operation east of Olds.
The property involved is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Township Road (Twp. Rd.) 324 and Range Road (Rge. Rd. 284), at SW 28-32-28-4 in the Netook area, about 10 kilometres east of Olds.
Bertens Holsteins Ltd. has applied to expand the existing dairy confined feeding operation by increasing animal numbers from 700 to 1,400 milking cows and to construct a new barn, heifer shelter and manure storage pad.
The proposed barn would be 6,062 square feet and the heifer shelter would be 15,360 square feet.
As part of the expansion application, the NRCB asked for comment from the MPC, which is the county’s approving authority made up of county councillors and appointed public members.
On Jan. 22, county administration received notification from the NRCB that the application was deemed complete and Part 2 - Technical Requirements was submitted to the county requesting written comments by Feb. 19.
During the Feb. 6 MCP meeting, Coun. Peggy Johnson put forward a motion requesting information from the NRCB on the projected water usage at the expanded facility.
“Although their (water) well looks like it will handle the additional animals if it is pumped 24 hours a day, I wonder if there is a back up plan, if they plan to drill another well,” said Johnson.
“I did see that it says that they need an additional or a new water licence, but this well is going to be absolutely maxed out even if it pumps 24 hours a day."
Board chairman Gerald Ingeveld said, “That’s good question. The water licence I assume was just for the increased usage because they would be going over their 250,000 litres annually.”
Johnson then added, “The way that I calculated they only have about 10,000 litres a day extra and given the drought, if that well doesn’t pump to its capacity they are going to be in trouble and that would be bad.”
The applicant did not make any comment during the Jan. 6 commission meeting, held in person and online.
Commission members voted unanimously to forward the question to the NRCB.
