Replacement rate can't keep up with increasing demand, critics warn

Jeff Buckstein
Canwest News Service


Tuesday, September 30, 2008



CREDIT: Peter J. Thompson, Canwest News Service
Human and industrial activity removes more water than is naturally replenished in the Great Lakes, including Lake Ontario, above, says Maude Barlow, chairwoman of The Council of Canadians.

Water has been called the "blue gold" of the 21st century, and it is one of Canada's most abundant resources.

While many countries struggle to ensure their citizens enough fresh water for drinking and agriculture, Canada has about one-fifth of the planet's supply. But that is no reason for complacency: The only meaningful figure for conservation purposes, say environmentalists, is renewable fresh water from rain and snowmelt. Natural Resources Canada reports the country has less than 10 per cent of the world's renewable water supply.

Any snapshot of Canada's freshwater resources has to begin with the Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior contain 21 per cent of the world's and 84 per cent of North America's fresh water, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The lakes are a gift of nature from the last ice age, and the replacement rate from precipitation and snowmelt is only about one per cent each year, says Dan McDermott, director of Sierra Club Ontario in Toronto. Consequently, "no excessive water within the Great Lakes can be diverted outside of the basin without cost," he says.

But human and industrial activity is "over-pumping" the Great Lakes, and collectively replenishing only a small portion of that removed, says Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of The Council of Canadians in Ottawa and a longtime advocate of water rights. In a recent interview, she cited as one concern the bottled water industry, which she fears might be overdrawing spring waters that feed into the Great Lakes.

Pollution is another major concern in the Great Lakes. There are hundreds of chemicals in the the lakes that don't belong there, says Barlow, who complains there has been "a lot of slippage" in conservation efforts lately resulting in "increased use of the Great Lakes as a dumping ground."

A third major issue involves invasive species. "A lot of groups have been saying for a number of years the big ocean bearing vessels should not be allowed into the Great Lakes because they dump their ballasts [there]," Barlow says. The lakes have been overrun with invasive species, creating a serious problem, she adds.

Lake Winnipeg is the fourth largest freshwater lake in Canada and 11th largest in the world. Its watershed extends for nearly one million square kilometres and impacts four provinces, along with parts of four U.S. states. Despite its huge size, Barlow believes it is "the sickest body of water in Canada" mainly because of phosphorous from various sources, including household dishwashers and agriculture. She says there are also "too many cottages, too many houses, too much industry, and not enough protection."

Nicole Armstrong, acting director of the water science and management branch for Manitoba Water Stewardship in Winnipeg, a five-year old provincial government department, acknowledges there are problems, but disagrees with Barlow's assessment.

"Lake Winnipeg is not the sickest body in water in Canada," she says. "It certainly suffers from eutrophication [a process which leads to excessive plant growth]. We're seeing an increase in the frequency and severity of algae blooms and in concentrations of nitrogen," and combatting those afflictions are the top priorities of her department, Armstrong says. Nitrogen and phosphorous content have increased by about 10 per cent over the past 30 years, and the Lake Winnipeg Action Plan aims to reduce those levels by that same amount, she adds.

The Athabasca River, meanwhile, has attracted a lot of attention because of its use in and proximity to the oilsands near Fort McMurray, Alta.

The oil sands require intensive mining techniques to separate bitumen, a heavy, sticky form of petroleum, from the sand. This type of mining requires intensive water usage -- in some cases, more than four units of water for each unit of oil produced.

Some companies use less. Syncrude Canada Ltd., for instance, uses two cubic metres of water for each cubic metre of oil produced (currently 350,000 barrels per day), says Don Thompson, general manager for regulatory and external affairs at Syncrude's Calgary office.

Barlow writes in her recent book Blue Covenant that the oil and gas industry has the right to divert more than 500 billion litres of water each year within the Athabasca Basin alone.

While the number is about right, the amount of water being taken out for oil and gas development amounts to only about one-half of one per cent of mean annual flow in the Athabasca River, says Preston McEachern, a section head for Alberta Environment's oil sands environmental management division. "That's a very small amount," he says.

Barlow and other environmentalists worry, however, that industry is already pumping too much water, and fear that situation will worsen as production in the oilsands ramps up.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008