Eco-Journal, v.17.3 May/June 2007Eco-Journal, v.17.3 May/June 2007
Major drainage basins empty into Manitoba. Map by Government of Manitoba
By Glen Koroluk
The Manitoba Eco-Network´s Water Caucus continues to take action and research issues affecting water quality and the health of aquatic ecosystems throughout Manitoba. The following is an update on some of our more recent projects.
Lake Winnipeg Planning Workshop
The Manitoba Eco-Network is part of a planning advisory committee which held a workshop to further the goals of the Healthy Lake Winnipeg Charter. The Charter derives from the Lake Winnipeg Implementation Committee´s November 2006 report, “Restoring the Health of Lake Winnipeg: Canada´s Sixth Great Lake’. Over fifty participants responded to the invitation and attended the one-day workshop (held in February) involving key active Manitoba interests in Lake Winnipeg and some selected interests in the basin outside the Province. There was overwhelming support to establish a larger community-led governance structure within the Lake Winnipeg basin to further the goals of protecting the ecological integrity of the lake. A recommendations report will be released by the end of May 2007. The Province of Manitoba responded to the event by releasing a news release the day before, indicating that the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board (an appointed body of the Minister of Water Stewardship) has been given an expanded mandate to continue the protection of Lake Winnipeg. No details of their plan or financial commitments were included in this news release.
The Upper Assiniboine Watershed Planning Advisory Team (WPAT)
The Manitoba Eco-Network is a member of the WPAT which is comprised of approximately 60 members including local stakeholders, science information agencies and Conservation District board representatives. The WPAT is tasked to bring local and science knowledge into the watershed planning process. The Upper Assiniboine watersheds region includes four watersheds, three conservation districts and Lake of the Prairies, a reservoir that is a major water supply for industrial, agricultural, irrigation and municipal users in southern Manitoba. It is anticipated that three separate plans will result from this process within a three-year timeline. The watershed management plan must include a State of the Watershed Report (within 12 months), a Watershed Report Card, a Source Water Protection Assessment and a Source Water Protection Plan. The Terms of Reference for the preparation of the plan and Memorandum of Understanding for the designation of a water planning authority were completed in late summer 2006 amongst government officials and the project management team. The decision to combine the four watersheds and three conservation districts into one planning process was made “because of resource constraints’. These constraints have included the inability to retain a senior watershed planner for any length of time (they have now hired their third planner) and delay in obtaining crucial data from government sources. Ten WPAT meetings are scheduled for year one ending November 2007.
Water Quality Management Zones for Nutrients
The public comment period for establishing Manitoba´s first regulation under the Water Protection Act was extended to January 2007. We expect the regulation to go through an order-in-council after the provincial election. It is anticipated that amendments will occur under the Ground Water and Well Water Act to incorporate source water protection measures. In November of 2006, the Minster of Conservation amended the Manure Management and Mortalities Regulation under the Environment Act to incorporate phosphorus limits in manure management plans. At the same time, a temporary pause was placed on the permitting of new earthen manure storage facilities, and the government called on the Clean Environment Commission to conduct an investigation of the sustainability of the hog industry in Manitoba.
Prairie Water Network
The Manitoba Eco-Network continues to assist in the development of a Statement of Expectation (SOE) for Water Sustainability in the prairie region of Canada. Over the course of the next two to three months, a final draft SOE will be available for the Manitoba Eco-Network to solicit input and support from the larger civil society community in Manitoba. The Prairie Water Network and SOE is a collaboration of the Alberta Environmental Network—Water Caucus, Saskatchewan Environmental Society and Manitoba Eco-Network—Water Caucus and is coordinated and managed by the Sierra Club of Western Canada. (Editor´s Note: an article on the Prairie Water Network appeared in Vol. 17 # 2 (March/April 2007) of the Manitoba Eco-Journal, on page 9.)
Town of Minnedosa Water Supply Upgrade Project
Fueled by additional water needs for a new Husky Oil Ethanol Plant, the Town of Minnedosa, which supplies potable water to Husky, applied for an Environment Act license to increase its withdrawal of groundwater in the region. A working group was established, through the Water Caucus to raise public concern, ask for a thorough investigation through a Clean Environment Commission hearing and protect the aquatic ecosystem of the Little Saskatchewan River. The Little Saskatchewan River is the source of the alluvial aquifer which the town draws its water from. The Minister of Conservation issued a license to allow for the project to proceed and built in the requirement to implement a passable water quality and quantity-monitoring program as a condition for the license. In response, a number of organizations appealed the issuance of the license, but to no avail. Since the appeal, a voluntary water conservation planning exercise was initiated by the Town of Minnedosa and Green Manitoba, a special operating agency of the provincial government in charge of implementing water and energy conservation programs.
Red River Valley Water Supply Project
The Manitoba Eco-Network hired a consultant in December of 2006 to develop a policy sign-on document in support of an in basin solution to North Dakota´s perceived water supply problem in the Red River Valley. The document will promote a water conservation ethic and the many soft path alternatives that were promoted in the Pembina Valley Water Co-op project environmental review process (see the article in Eco-Journal Vol. 16, # 5, p. 5.). The final public release of this policy sign-on document will be timed to coincide with the political decision-making process on the Garrison Diversion.