Despite opposition from the environmental community, the Horseshoe Lands Area Structure Plan unanimously passed third reading in the MD of Bighorn Council on September 27, 2007. This is despite having no guaranteed source of water for the full community.

The developers, Moondance Land Company and a numbered Alberta company owned by the Stoney Nakoda Nation, can now proceed to the Concept Planning phase, where they'll be able to apply more detail to their plans. Although the developers have much more leverage having moved this far in the process, opportunity for public input is not at an end but will arise through the concept planning phase. The final ASP will be available on the MD of Bighorn website.

The new town proposed for the Horseshoe Lands would be a new community in the Bow Valley and occupy land formerly owned by TransAlta Utilities Ltd. on the banks of the Bow River below the mouth of the Kananaskis River. A small portion of the land was the site of the village of Seebe, which was home to a small number of TransAlta employees and was closed in August 2003. The new town would accommodate up to 5600 people, with 2900 residential units, as well as commercial and industrial facilities.

In passing second reading of the development's draft Area Structure Plan (ASP) last spring, Council presented a list of 27 concerns to the developers, which they were to address to pass third reading. A number of concerns were addressed but not all — including water. The Council and developers have agreed that these remaining issues will be resolved for the first Concept Plan.

So far, the developers have not obtained a water licence from the Bow River. The licence application is one of a group of applications that were submitted before a moratorium on new licences in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (beginning August 2006), thus it is not subject to the moratorium. But it was submitted after May 2005, which is the date from which Water Conservation Objectives — intended to protect instream flows of the river — are to be applied to new licences.

The developers' preferred choice for water is a groundwater source from a deep aquifer near Exshaw. This aquifer has been proven to meet Exshaw's projected needs of 1600 equivalent people. Exshaw has now applied with Alberta Environment for a licence to withdraw from this aquifer. But the aquifer has not been tested to determine if there is a sustainable amount of water for the Horseshoe Lands development.

Like any application to use groundwater, understanding of the entire aquifer should be in place so as to determine the possible effects on groundwater or surface water each development or land use might cause.

However, the developers are unlikely to be approved a licence from Alberta Environment for either source of water until they are ready to use the water and have the infrastructure in place. Alberta Environment instead would give them a tentative yes and outline criteria that must be fulfilled. This has yet to happen.

Nor has a full environmental impact assessment been undertaken to assess the proposed development's cumulative impacts, including the aquatic environment and the water resources in the region. This development cannot be considered in isolation from all of the existing impacts in this basin. It is and would be part of larger ecological, hydrological, economic, recreational, administrative and political systems. Land and water are scarce as humans and wildlife increasingly jostle for space in this unique ecoregion.