As the Alberta government gets closer to the anticipated construction of the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir, further open houses are being held in Springbank and Calgary, with the first in Springbank on Aug. 16 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Adam Johnson, public affairs officer of Alberta Transportation, says a project update is being provided with some information on the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and the research they have completed on project alternatives.

The field work is now completed for the EIA and the government is seeking public feedback for their final submission.

"Essentially people will be able to come and go as they please but we will doing a presentation around 7 p.m. at all four of them where we'll go through the different elements of the EIA, we'll present the benefit cost analysis and we'll be able to take questions from the attendents."

There's going to be information boards at the meetings and resource people available both from the government and project contractors to answer questions.

"There's going to be a lot of information for people to get through and hopefully we can answer everyone's questions."

Alberta Environment and Parks plans to submit the EIA to both federal and provincial regulators by the beginning of October, says Johnson, and they expect the review to take a year. Once completed, the construction phase will begin and they aim to have it operational by the fourth quarter of 2020. 

Designed as a dry dam unless flood conditions are present, the proposed Springbank Off-stream Reservoir will work in tandem with the Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary to store excess water volume during floods. .

All sessions will have identical information persented and will run from 5 to 8 p.m. Dates and locations are: Aug. 16 and 22, Wild West Event Centre, 67 Commercial Court; Aug. 17, Mount Royal University, Ross Glen Hall, 4825 Mt. Royal Gate SW, Calgary; and Aug. 29, First Church of the Narzarene, 65 Richard Way SW, Calgary.

Don't Damn Springbank, Tsuut'ina Nation and Redwood Meadows have all been particularly vocal in their opposition to the dam and Rocky View County and Rocky View 2020 are among those also expressing concern.