PEI Water Act An Opportunity

Michael van den Heuvel, Director

What does a water act do?

Provides the legislative basis for all water use Typically invests ownership of all water in the government for: “the wise allocation and use of water” Balancing the need for economic growth with conservation and environment Application procedure for water use A clear process to support decisions Enforcement, penalties Who decides? Multi-stakeholder, arms length from government Categories of water use (domestic, industrial) Management of water in an integrated way Protect water for purposes of drinking and living organisms Underlying philosophy of managing the cumulative resource on a watershed basis This is all in addition to Federal Statutes (eg. Fisheries Act, CEAA)

Water Act

Policy Regulations

The principles and process

The nuts and bolts Eg. water allocation, environmental flows, environmental protection

Hydrological Connectivity All surface and ground water are part of the same resource and should be managed accordingly In practice, this often mean consolidating a number of acts into one

Jefang Jiang

Governance on a watershed basis The drainage basis is the fundamental unit by which water flows The only way to cumulatively manage water

Cumulative impacts

Valued Ecosystem Component

Cumulative Impacts Assessment

OK, but what could that really mean to us?

Watersheds have a finite capacity for development Limits on the proportion of arable land within a watershed? There is only so much water that can be used sustainably, there will not be equal rights of use Oh really?... Yup… British Columbia applies the historic First-in-Time, First-in-Right (FITFIR) system, in which senior licensees — those with the earliest priority dates — have precedence over junior licensees, regardless of the purpose for which the water is used. .” Under a temporary Critical Environmental Flow Protection Order, the Comptroller defines a minimum flow required to avoid significant or irreversible harm to a specific stream.

Environmental flows describe the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well being that depend on these ecosystems. More than 200 methods are used worldwide to prescribe river flows needed to maintain healthy rivers. Highly dependent on seasonality and hydrological regime.

What are the water issues?

Nutrients Pesticides & contaminants

Drinking Demands

Irrigation

Climate change Erosion

Acid Rain Atmospheric contaminants

High Capacity Wells A poor business decision

Profitability of PEI potato farms 1.8% (~ $50 an acre) Assuming a yield increase sufficient to reach the national average profit (6%) Assuming 500 acres of potatoes in the ground Cost of $250,000 for well installation, plus $50,000 financing costs Assuming that same return every single year, Assuming no further licensing, water fees, maintenance Minimum of five years to repay investment This is pure fantasy, profitability disparity for PEI is production cost, not yield, we generally have the second best yield in Canada Optimal water use in Alberta 400-550 mm PEI summer rainfall 400-500 mm

$$$ $$$

Daily water use during different growth stages of irrigated potato in southern Alberta.

The real problem with PEI potato yield

PEI

How can a Water Act Deal with Water Quality Issues

46 (1) Unless authorized under this or another enactment or excepted under subsection (2), a person must not (a) introduce debris, refuse, carcasses, human or animal waste, pesticides, fertilizers, contaminants or another matter or substance into a stream, a stream channel or an area adjacent to a stream, or (b) cause or allow debris, refuse, carcasses, human or animal waste, pesticides, fertilizers, contaminants or another matter or substance to be introduced into a stream, a stream channel or an area adjacent to a stream in such a quantity or in such a manner as to cause a significant adverse impact to (c) the stream or stream channel, (d) the existing uses of the water from the stream, (e) the property of riparian owners on the stream, (f) an aquifer that is hydraulically connected to the stream or the existing uses of the water from that aquifer, or (g) the aquatic ecosystem of the stream.

BC Water Sustainability Act

Nitrogen

Where is the nitrogen coming from?

Kildare

Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan

DO

mg/

L

0

5

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30Upper50 % (Top)50 % (Bottom)

Dead things

How can a water act help?

Setting nitrogen Loading targets for watersheds through regulation But you need the appropriate tools for planning and managing land use

Suspended Sediment

Yes Probably Possibly

Agriculture Increases Erosional Susceptibility

We need to know quantities and impacts sufficiently well to set targets Canadian guidelines exist, and we typically far exceed them

1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Year

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

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9

Fish

Kill

s

Pesticides

High use of fungicides Increasing challenges with pests Changing insecticide usage Eg. increases in neonics

Other impacts in estuaries and offshore biota?

Connectivity

Haste Makes Waste BC Water sustainability act – 4 years to produce, Does not come into effect until 2016, Only the start: Much of the policy and regulation has not been written yet We have no governance structure/tax base on PEI to manage on a watershed

basis In a time of budgetary constraint, a water act could help remedy this Consultation is required at every stage of act development Consultation and negotiation also required in the development of regulations Pitfals: In Alberta “To some extent, the need for change is also driven by the fact

that Alberta has concentrated on managing the “paper”—water licenses—but not always the “resource”—the water itself.”

Once chance to do this, do it properly

If everybody is slightly unhappy with the end result, a good compromise will

have been reached

It is not reasonable to grant unrestricted free use of the public resource, nor is it reasonable to ban the use of water for and economically important

resource if water can be used sustainably

Thank you