Ron Tittle excerpt from Pioneer Voices 2007
“…I think my dad started irrigating in1953, renting the plot we’ve got and in 1967 we bought it. I got involved politically when I got nominated to Consul-Nashlyn Irrigation Board. Then I became chairman. From there I got nominated for steering committee, which would be about 15 years ago, to set up the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association. I spent 3 years as the first chairman for the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association.”
I was the one that worked in the late ’70s and early ’80s to get the Battle Creek Reservoir built, which political will decided that we didn’t need.
It would have been about a mile and a half off the US border. It was to store water to make up for a deficit when we created a deficit from Cypress Lake; it was a balancing reservoir is what it would have been, to make sure the Americans got their share, 50%. They have to have their share. We never get a credit for excess. We can always go into debt, but we can never go into excess.
The government that was in power at the time, [Progressive Conservative Party] they were actually ready to let the contract out; everything was done. We had passed our environmental studies, which took a lot of work to get past that and they were ready to let the contract out when the election was [1991] and then a change of government [NDP] and it’s back to square one again. It has not died. We have had several water conferences over the past four years, in Regina and different places and the Battle Creek Reservoir is talked about at all those conferences, I guess because I won’t let it die is one of the reasons! There have been studies, though and the fellow that did the studies fully recommended that any place there could be water stored, there should be something done about it. We control one of the most precious commodities that there is.
This dam would not fill up and stay full, it would fluctuate drastically because it would fill up in the spring and then we would release the water out of it to balance the deficit, so it would fluctuate, so there is a riparian area built into it to accommodate the ducks and geese, or waterfowl, not just ducks and geese, but all the rest too.
We have the most fresh water in the world here in Saskatchewan. It’s unbelievable and yet we are doing nothing about it.”
Note:
Ron has continued to be on the SIPA (Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association) Board and has currently (2014) accepted another three year term.
