About the SMRID: Pioneering Alberta Irrigation and Infrastructure
The St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) is a utility that is ideally suited to Southern Alberta. We capture snow melt water in a series of pipelines, canals, and reservoirs and deliver it to the farms on the plains of the semi-arid region from Lethbridge to Medicine Hat. The region typically produces consistent yields of high value and top quality crops with less disease pressures when compared to more wet and humid climates, allowing Southern Alberta to attract some large processing companies and develop our region into Canada’s premier food corridor.
We are dedicated to our vision of supporting communities, environment, and agriculture in the area and to our mission to provide for future generations.
We strive to be committed citizens in Southern Alberta and are proud of the District’s role in the history of irrigation.
In order to maintain the delivery of water through a complex system of reservoirs, canals and pipelines to water users within our District, we employ a staff of over 100 full-time and part-time field and office staff in Lethbridge, Taber and Bow Island. These staff are responsible for the engineering, operations, and administration of the District.
In addition to irrigation, our licenses support municipal, industrial, recreational and environmental uses; we will not allow water to be used for well injection. Almost all the reservoirs within the SMRID system are used for recreational purposes, including boating, fishing and public camping.
Millions of dollars have been invested by the District and irrigators to improve the efficiency of transport and application of water to crops, creating significant water savings, allowing the District to irrigate more acres with less water.
Learn more about the bigger picture of Alberta Irrigation.
In 2021, the SMRID unveiled a new logo design which symbolizes two shapes (blue for SMRID and Green for the former TID) that form an S outline to resemble the S for SMRID. The two merging shapes represents the delivery of water to farms as the blue meets green. It also can represent a meandering river, a leaf, or a drop of water, which we believe aligns perfectly with our values at SMRID.
Learn more about Southern Alberta’s Irrigation history: Watch “Eras of Irrigation”