Leo Broderick made a presentation on the draft water act on April 5 in Summerside. See his presentation notes here.

He asked, “How will the Water Act protect our groundwater?” and showed an old map of nitrate contamination in PEI, suggesting that groundwater in several areas of the province is not fit to drink. And that the Act does not have leverage to deal with what is a growing public health issue in the province associated with nitrate- contaminated water and most likely with pesticides as well.

Gary Schneider sent a submission electronically. You can read the whole thing here. And here’s an excerpt:

“After carefully reading the draft Act, I still don’t know how we are going to protect water in this province. I would have liked to have seen, even in a preamble or in the “Inside the Water Act” document, a statement on how we’re going to substantially reduce nitrates and pesticides in our waterways. Islanders need and deserve clear and enforceable targets on reducing nitrates, agricultural and cosmetic pesticides, and soil erosion, and to know how these will be achieved. This will include everything from removing loopholes and strengthening the crop rotation legislation to increasing the width of buffer zones as needed to protect waterways.”