Click here for the pdf file for Darcie Lanthier’s Water Act Presentation PEI
Health of P.E.I.’s aquatic ecosystems must be goal of Water Act
This OpEd was published in the Charlottetown Guardian December 14.
The final presentations to the Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) regarding the Water Act have been made.
The EAC will continue to accept comments and concerns until January 15. (See the government Water Act page here.)
The process has been open, transparent and participatory. The sessions were well-attended, and many people took the opportunity to ask questions or make comments during the open mic part of the evening.
It was impressive how many wonderful, detailed and well-researched presentations several groups and individuals made. Many of the people who worked on those presentations are volunteers. It just shows how important and meaningful these public sessions were, and how serious the issues regarding our water are for Islanders.
Members of the EAC have a daunting task ahead of them. At the final session, following presentations by Crop Life and Fertilizer Canada, it was mentioned that the EAC and the report must “find a balance.” What are we trying to balance? Is it economic growth with the health of the environment? The health of P.E.I.’s aquatic ecosystems must be the goal of the Water Act and our first and non-negotiable priority. If our environment continues to be degraded, it stands to reason the economy will also suffer. Management of the economy must be looked at through the lens of environmental security.
The precautionary principle was brought up in many of the presentations. This must be an enforceable principle, embedded in the act. In 1992, the United Nations adopted the following definition: “Where there may be threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.” In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada expanded this definition to include “human health.”
The precautionary approach recognizes that because there are limits to being able to determine and predict environmental impacts with scientific certainty, we must anticipate and prevent environmental degradation without waiting for proof that the environment will be impaired.
Many presenters also spoke about intergenerational equity, or making sure that we are protecting the environment for several generations. In what state will we leave this Island for our grandchildren and their grandchildren to come? This guiding principle should also be included in the legislation.
The Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Water strongly believes that citizen involvement should continue well beyond these consultations. We advocate a more democratic and inclusive process where citizens would have a collaborative role with government in the developing the Act itself, regulations, and in water governance and decision-making.
We have recommended such a “Water Board” to the EAC in our last presentation that would include a diverse group of citizens who have a primary commitment to ensuring and protecting the health of ecosystems. This board could include scientists and academics, First Nations, watershed groups, environmentalists, farmers, fishers, municipalities, and others. We will be submitting a more detailed proposal to the EAC for such a Water Governance Board in the New Year.
It is critical that we don’t take our water for granted and that we work to protect it now, and into the future.
Catherine O’Brien is the Chair of the Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Water.
Coalition Makes Second Presentation to the EAC
“We need to be guided by a bold vision for the future, and by a true commitment to sustainability. The key to this vision would be a transformation to sustainable agriculture as part of a sustainable economy. We need to ensure the production of healthy food while:
– restoring and preserving natural resources so that future generations can meet their needs
– improving the quality of the land (by increasing soil organic matter, and by reducing its pesticide and nitrate content)
– withdrawing no resources that cannot be replenished (e.g. fossil fuels)
– protecting the social and economic conditions of our farmers, and the health of our communities.”
Read the whole presentation here
DFO closes shellfishing due to contamination
Not a lot of information in this article but we can safely assume that the contamination came from pesticides running off from the recent heavy rains.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has closed two areas of P.E.I. shoreline to shellfishing as a precautionary measure after fears of contamination from heavy rainfall.
On P.E.I.’s north shore, the closure runs east from Gillis Point to a point just east of Cavendish, and takes in the important shellfishing areas of both Malpeque Bay and New London Bay.
On the south side of the Island, the closure affects an area from the church in Mont Carmel east to just east of the Desable River.
The closure restricts harvesting of oysters, mussels, clams and any other bivalve mollusc in a three-kilometre band from shore.
The DFO has brought in similar closures in the past after heavy rains.
Groundwater Not as Renewable as Thought, Study Finds
By Andrew Nikiforuk, m.thetyee.ca
Groundwater, the globe’s most dependable water insurance system, is not as renewable as researchers once thought and its availability varies greatly around the world.
A new study published in the science journal Nature GeoScience found that just six per cent of the groundwater in the upper two kilometres of the Earth’s crust is actually renewed over a human lifetime.
As a consequence, the vast majority of groundwater now being consumed at a rapid rate by agriculture, human communities and the oil and gas industry took hundreds, thousands or even millions of years to collect in the earth. (Some groundwater in Canada is more than a billion years old.)
”It begs the question of what is renewable in terms of groundwater,” said hydrologist Tom Gleeson at the University of Victoria and one of the paper’s authors. ”When we talk about groundwater, it can be 100, 1,000 or 10,000 years old and it was all at some time precipitation. But it all comes down to timescale.”
Scientists classify groundwater, the water that supplies aquifers and wells, as ”young” or ”modern” if it has seeped and pooled in the earth for only 25 to 100 years. It is generally more readily available and of better quality than old or ancient groundwater and is more vulnerable to contamination.
The study, which used extensive computer modelling, mapped the extent of young groundwater around the world by tracking tritium, a radioactive tracer, in thousands of groundwater samples from around the world.
Tritium is a byproduct of atmospheric nuclear testing during the 1950s and 1960s. The element fell to the ground in rainwater and is now a standard measurement for mapping young groundwater.
According to Gleeson and his collaborators, all the world’s young groundwater, if pumped and poured over the planet, would make a three-metre-deep pool, roughly the height of a basketball net.
In contrast, the remaining 94 per cent of the world’s groundwater, which is largely brackish, if pumped from depths of two kilometres would create a 180-metre flood on Earth, about the height of the Calgary Tower.
The report concluded that ”groundwater replenished over a human lifetime of 25 to 100 years is a finite, limited resource with a spatially heterogeneous distribution dependent on geographic, geologic and hydrologic conditions.”
”The results are a call to better manage and protect the resource,” said Gleeson. ”They show where groundwater is renewable and where it is most vulnerable to contamination and climate change.” Not surprisingly, young or modern groundwater is the most susceptible to both.
A new study published in the science journal Nature GeoScience found that just six per cent of the groundwater in the upper two kilometres of the Earth’s crust is actually renewed over a human lifetime.
As a consequence, the vast majority of groundwater now being consumed at a rapid rate by agriculture, human communities and the oil and gas industry took hundreds, thousands or even millions of years to collect in the earth. (Some groundwater in Canada is more than a billion years old.)
”It begs the question of what is renewable in terms of groundwater,” said hydrologist Tom Gleeson at the University of Victoria and one of the paper’s authors. ”When we talk about groundwater, it can be 100, 1,000 or 10,000 years old and it was all at some time precipitation. But it all comes down to timescale.”
Scientists classify groundwater, the water that supplies aquifers and wells, as ”young” or ”modern” if it has seeped and pooled in the earth for only 25 to 100 years. It is generally more readily available and of better quality than old or ancient groundwater and is more vulnerable to contamination.
The study, which used extensive computer modelling, mapped the extent of young groundwater around the world by tracking tritium, a radioactive tracer, in thousands of groundwater samples from around the world.
Tritium is a byproduct of atmospheric nuclear testing during the 1950s and 1960s. The element fell to the ground in rainwater and is now a standard measurement for mapping young groundwater.
According to Gleeson and his collaborators, all the world’s young groundwater, if pumped and poured over the planet, would make a three-metre-deep pool, roughly the height of a basketball net.
In contrast, the remaining 94 per cent of the world’s groundwater, which is largely brackish, if pumped from depths of two kilometres would create a 180-metre flood on Earth, about the height of the Calgary Tower.
The report concluded that ”groundwater replenished over a human lifetime of 25 to 100 years is a finite, limited resource with a spatially heterogeneous distribution dependent on geographic, geologic and hydrologic conditions.”
”The results are a call to better manage and protect the resource,” said Gleeson. ”They show where groundwater is renewable and where it is most vulnerable to contamination and climate change.” Not surprisingly, young or modern groundwater is the most susceptible to both.
Canadian monitoring lacks: expert
Groundwater supports a critical part of the Canadian economy.
Approximately 80 per cent of the rural population and 43 per cent of the nation’s agricultural productivity depend on groundwater. Groundwater also provides industry, including the water-intensive oil and gas sector, with 14 per cent of its water needs.
Yet federal researchers admit that they know relatively little about groundwater availability, quality and behaviour in Canada.
A 2011 report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a federal agency closed by the Harper government, noted that information ”on groundwater supplies is largely absent and is needed because of its link to many of Canada’s surface water sources.”
To date, Natural Resources Canada has mapped 19 of the nation’s so-called ”key” 30 aquifers. It doesn’t expect to complete its mapping until 2025.
Meanwhile, mining projects such as hydraulic fracturing in northern British Columbia and bitumen mining in northern Albertan could contaminate extensive groundwater supplies with stray gas, salt water, bitumen or other hydrocarbons.
John Cherry, the nation’s leading expert on groundwater contamination, has repeatedly warned that provincial governments have failed to set up rigorous groundwater monitoring programs in regions being fracked by the oil and gas industry in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
”From my hydrogeological perspective, I view shale gas development as a big experiment for which we have minimal scientific basis for predicting the outcome or the impacts of stray gas on groundwater quality,” he said.
Recent studies have shown that the fracking industry can violate aquifers, cause minor earthquakes and aggravate the leakage of stray methane from aging oil and gas wells by rattling existing oil and gas infrastructure.
A recent Stanford study, for example, found that the fracking of oil and gas less than a mile from aquifers or the Earth’s surface now takes place across North America with few restrictions, posing increased risk for drinking water supplies.
”We Canadians are leaders in many areas of groundwater science, but we are at the bottom of the ranking of countries that use modern science in or for groundwater mapping and protection,” Cherry said.
Groundwater supports a critical part of the Canadian economy.
Approximately 80 per cent of the rural population and 43 per cent of the nation’s agricultural productivity depend on groundwater. Groundwater also provides industry, including the water-intensive oil and gas sector, with 14 per cent of its water needs.
Yet federal researchers admit that they know relatively little about groundwater availability, quality and behaviour in Canada.
A 2011 report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a federal agency closed by the Harper government, noted that information ”on groundwater supplies is largely absent and is needed because of its link to many of Canada’s surface water sources.”
To date, Natural Resources Canada has mapped 19 of the nation’s so-called ”key” 30 aquifers. It doesn’t expect to complete its mapping until 2025.
Meanwhile, mining projects such as hydraulic fracturing in northern British Columbia and bitumen mining in northern Albertan could contaminate extensive groundwater supplies with stray gas, salt water, bitumen or other hydrocarbons.
John Cherry, the nation’s leading expert on groundwater contamination, has repeatedly warned that provincial governments have failed to set up rigorous groundwater monitoring programs in regions being fracked by the oil and gas industry in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
”From my hydrogeological perspective, I view shale gas development as a big experiment for which we have minimal scientific basis for predicting the outcome or the impacts of stray gas on groundwater quality,” he said.
Recent studies have shown that the fracking industry can violate aquifers, cause minor earthquakes and aggravate the leakage of stray methane from aging oil and gas wells by rattling existing oil and gas infrastructure.
A recent Stanford study, for example, found that the fracking of oil and gas less than a mile from aquifers or the Earth’s surface now takes place across North America with few restrictions, posing increased risk for drinking water supplies.
”We Canadians are leaders in many areas of groundwater science, but we are at the bottom of the ranking of countries that use modern science in or for groundwater mapping and protection,” Cherry said.
World aquifers stressed: NASA
Earlier this year, NASA scientists reported that the human economy was rapidly mining nearly one-third of the world’s largest aquifers even though researchers know little about how much water remains in them.
The NASA study found that 13 of the planet’s 37 largest aquifers studied between 2003 and 2013 were being depleted while receiving little to no young water. These aquifers support two billion human beings with drinking water.
The scientists identified the world’s most stressed groundwater supply as the Arabian Aquifer System. It provides drinking water for places like Saudi Arabia and more than 60 million people.
Other dangerously stressed aquifers included the Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa.
California’s Central Valley, which has been mined heavily by industrial agriculture and is suffering rapid depletion, was labeled ”highly stressed” as well.
Researchers now say the aquifer that supports much of North America’s food production ”lacks sufficient natural recharge to balance current use rates,” which has been exacerbated by an increased dependence on groundwater during the California drought. (California is the first state to pass sustainable groundwater management legislation, but it doesn’t go into effect until 2040.)
”The degree to which a society understands and protects its groundwater is a measure of the society’s commitment to taking care of the ‘public commons,’ or in other words, the commitment to environmental sustainability,” explained Cherry.
”This is because the problems that show up in groundwater take much longer than an electoral cycle or two. Therefore, if our present society behaves responsibly on this, the primary benefits are for our children and mostly our grandchildren. The Europeans sort of understand this, but we cowboys on this continent find the concept beyond our imagination.”
Earlier this year, NASA scientists reported that the human economy was rapidly mining nearly one-third of the world’s largest aquifers even though researchers know little about how much water remains in them.
The NASA study found that 13 of the planet’s 37 largest aquifers studied between 2003 and 2013 were being depleted while receiving little to no young water. These aquifers support two billion human beings with drinking water.
The scientists identified the world’s most stressed groundwater supply as the Arabian Aquifer System. It provides drinking water for places like Saudi Arabia and more than 60 million people.
Other dangerously stressed aquifers included the Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan and the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa.
California’s Central Valley, which has been mined heavily by industrial agriculture and is suffering rapid depletion, was labeled ”highly stressed” as well.
Researchers now say the aquifer that supports much of North America’s food production ”lacks sufficient natural recharge to balance current use rates,” which has been exacerbated by an increased dependence on groundwater during the California drought. (California is the first state to pass sustainable groundwater management legislation, but it doesn’t go into effect until 2040.)
”The degree to which a society understands and protects its groundwater is a measure of the society’s commitment to taking care of the ‘public commons,’ or in other words, the commitment to environmental sustainability,” explained Cherry.
”This is because the problems that show up in groundwater take much longer than an electoral cycle or two. Therefore, if our present society behaves responsibly on this, the primary benefits are for our children and mostly our grandchildren. The Europeans sort of understand this, but we cowboys on this continent find the concept beyond our imagination.”
Water Act Consultations Schedule
The Water Act Consultations are winding down – here is the schedule for the next few weeks. In each case start time is 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 24th
Kensington Legion
Kensington North Watersheds Association
Kensington Water Management
Southwest River Nitrate Group
Margaret MacKay (individual)
Thursday, Nov. 26th
Elmsdale, Westisle Composite
Coalition for the Protection of PEI Water (#2)
PEI Federation of Agriculture
PEI Federation of Municipalities
Cascumpec Bay Watershed Association
Wednesday, Dec. 2nd
Cornwall Civic Centre
Cornwall and Area Watershed Group
PEI Potato Board
PEI Shellfishers Association
Ellen’s Creek Protection and Planning Committee
Monday, Dec. 7th
Farm Centre, Charlottetown
CropLife Canada
Fertilizer Canada
Darcie Lanthier (individual)
Sandy MacKay (individual)
Save Our Seas and Shores PEI Presents to EAC
Ellie Reddin and Ian Forgeron, speaking on behalf of SOSS PEI made an excellent presentation with 3 strong recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Protection from the potential pollution of PEI water resulting from oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Gulf, including the discharge of deleterious substances.
Recommendation 2: Protection of fundamental right to clean, safe drinking water, and the protection of the health of aquatic systems as the primary goal of the Water Act.
Recommendation 3: Continuation of moratorium on High Capacity Wells for agricultural irrigation, and non-essential uses; as well as, increased regulations for for industrial and commercial purposes of High Capacity Wells and to phase out existing wells gradually to the extent possible.
Strong Recommendations from Winter River/Tracadie Bay Watershed Group
The Winter River/Tracadie Bay Watershed Association made a powerful presentation to the Environmental Advisory Council on November 4th.
One of their recommendations was to investigate methods to return some water to the Winter River to reduce the amount of “one way flow” of water to Charlottetown, at least during dry periods, to help recharge the aquifer. Read more here.
We Don’t Want Another Winter River: Lessons for the Water Act By Don Mazer
Don Mazer started his presentation to the EAC by pointing out that, “It’s appropriate that these consultations begin in Charlottetown, and to be talking about the Winter River, the source of virtually all of the water used by this City and its residents, businesses, institutions, worker and visitors. One could say that the reason for these consultations actually begins with Charlottetown and with the Winter River. The Standing Committee hearings about the impact of high capacity wells and the proposal to lift the moratorium led to the recommendations for a Water Act. And the Winter River watershed is the home of 14 of such high capacity wells located in Brackley, Union and Suffolk that operate all day every day of the year, pumping more than 18 million litres per day from the watershed to the City of Charlottetown. There is much to be learned from the experience of the Winter River with water extraction that is valuable for a new Water Act.”
You can read Don’s full presentation here.
Blue Drinks – October 27
Are you interested in, studying, or working on water issues in PEI? Join your colleagues for informal networking at Blue Drinks! Where: The Gahan House, 126 Sydney St., Charlottetown
When: Tuesday, October 27th at 6pm
R.S.V.P: Blue Drinks PEI Tickets
Blue Drinks is a networking event hosted by the Canadian Water Network Student and Young Professional Committee (CWNSYPC) for members of the water community to discuss water-related challenges, developments, and opportunities for collaboration. Students, researchers, professionals, and interested members of the public are welcome to attend!
To be added to the PEI Blue Drinks distribution list, contact Erin at BlueDrinksPEI@gmail.com
Coalition for the Protection of PEI Water 