A water act of omission?
If you have trouble sleeping, you could, instead of buying expensive sleep remedies, download the draft for the P.E.I. Water Act at: https://www. princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/publications/consultation_draft_water_act.pdf. Reading this is guaranteed to put you to sleep several nights in a row at no cost and with no side effects whatsoever, except wondering what the hell our government is up to now.
Like many Islanders, I am concerned with our ground source of water. It is such an essential commodity whether you are a family, a farm or a business.
Understandably, many think it is a human right to have access to pure drinking water. We are all concerned that commercial enterprises such as large scale potato farming, bottling plants and cities such as Charlottetown do not suck the ground so dry, that individual wells and rivers run dry, as is the case at Winter River.
To this extent it is a good move that the proposed water act clearly establishes that our groundwater is a public asset and not one that commercial interests can freely mine or pollute as they wish. The P.E.I. Water Act clearly takes possession of all underground water and places solidly it in the hands of the P.E.I. Minister of Environment
However, there is not even the slightest hint of what the Minister might actually try to accomplish. Goals I think many Islanders would like to see addressed include:
1. Steps to reduce or eliminate nitrates and pesticides in our drinking water and streams;
2. Policies for eliminating the most dangerous chemicals;
3. Policies for establishing chemical free zones around Schools, residences and watersheds.
4. Long-term policies for making our Island more chemical free;
5. A pricing policy that makes large water users pay the same for water as residents;
6. Last, but not least, a statement that forbids fracking on P.E.I. soil.
Yes, it is reassuring that inspectors won’t bear arms and that the fines of offenders will be $1,000 to $10,000 for individuals and $10,000 to $100,000 for corporations, but which Islanders’ concerns does the government plan to address with this new legislation? That’s what I want to know.
Are they going to consult the public like they did with Plan B, Proportional Representation and school closures and then do their own thing regardless of the opinion of the public? I fear the worst.
The Water Act gives the government absolute power over water issues, but few specifics. The few specifics are off the mark.
For instance, the act forbids pouring chemicals on the ground or in streams. This sounds good but we all know that farmers spray tons of chemicals on the ground every day and that some of those chemicals end up in our streams and our drinking water. Naturally farmers do not pour their expensive chemicals on the ground, so in this case the legislation addresses only the non-problem while not dealing at all with the real problem, which is farming with chemicals.
While the public is permitted access to the data, the government deliberately obfuscates the data available.
For instance no data at all is given on the certain presence of pesticides; in fact the word pesticide is not even mentioned in the Act.
The statistics offered also imply that we are only using 1 per cent of available water, when the truth is that we are running out of well locations that have permissible levels of nitrates and other pollutants; yet the government claims that we are only using 1 per cent of the available water.
Actual indications are that current extraction rates already have negative effect on streams although not as bad as is the case at Winter River.
I think the very least the government should do is to give us all the data and all the options. Then at least we would have something to discuss at the upcoming hearings.
For a starter, the government persons in charge of the Water Act should read the P.E.I. Provincial Energy Strategy, a well-researched and well-formulated document.
The Water Act deserves at least as much attention and strategy for the future as energy does.