Nitrates in water: report

With 85 per cent of Prince Edward Island under some form of managed land use, the entire province is vulnerable to nitrate contamination, says the report of the Commission on Nitrates in Groundwater released Tuesday (July 8).

But some watershedsparticularly those with a high proportion of land in potato productionshow significant effects of nitrate pollution, the report says.

Many in the province have been anxiously awaiting this report after a provincial study came out last April showing nitrate levels in the Islands groundwater are alarmingly high and climbing.

Now, after meeting for a year, the commission has come up with 30 recommendations for government to enact strategies to reduce PEIs nitrate concentrations.

Six of these recommendations have been deemed absolutely essential by the commission.

These include government amend regulations regarding sewage disposal, develop a nutrient management system to reduce nitrogen leaching from agricultural sectors and introduce a mandatory three-year crop rotation for potatoes with no exceptions.

The key sources of nitrate pollution are agricultural fertilizers, manure storage and spreading operations, septic systems and fertilizers applied to lawns, golf courses and other recreational activities, the report states.

All of these have led to a steady increase in nitrate levels in groundwater, rivers, streams and estuaries.

Last year, the study completed by the Geological Survey of Canada showed groundwater nitrate concentrations in many regions of the province had reached significantly higher levels than the acceptable maximum.

The Commission on Nitrates in Groundwater also conducted tests on 2,511 water samples gathered from the recent provincewide nitrate testing clinics.

In their smaller sample, the commission found six per cent of private wells in PEI tested positive for nitrates at numbers maximum set by the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Another 11 per cent of Island wells also tested at or close to the maximum.

But Premier Robert Ghiz said this is exactly why the Commission on Nitrates in Groundwater was struck.

This is an issue that did not develop overnight, Ghiz said. Over the last 50 years, weve been in the process of putting more and more nitrates into our groundwater systemits not going to be something thats going to be fixed overnight.

What were going to do is were going to start right away to work on ways to reduce nitrates in our groundwater.

He said he plans to amend legislation as early as the fall sitting of the legislature that will help implement some of the commissions recommendations.

I think this is a very good report, one that were looking to (be) implementing and making sure that our groundwater will be protected for generations to come, Ghiz said.

But Leo Broderick of the Council of Canadians was disappointed with the report.

He said he was unhappy with how it downplayed the links between nitrates and cancer.

They discount the cancer issues connected to nitrates but its clearthe research now is showing almost everywhere that bladder cancers are very much connected to drinking water contaminated with nitrates, gastric cancer and also prostate cancer, which is a major problem here on PEI, Broderick said.

He was critical of the entire premise of the recommendations, saying they are based on continuing the same agricultural practices.

Nonetheless, Ghiz believes the commission members were stern and serious when dealing with the issue of nitrates in Island groundwater.

He has appointed a deputy ministers committee that will report back to cabinet by September on implementing the first six recommendations.

The report will be formally tabled in the legislature this fall.

INSIDE THE REPORT:

The report of the Commission on Nitrates in Groundwater includes 30 recommendations in nine categories, dealing with all aspects of nitrate management. Among these, the commission has identified six recommendations that are absolutely essential:

Improving public education on protecting water quality

Reducing nutrient loading from sewage treatment systems

Supporting watershed-based water management planning

Mandatory three-year crop rotation for potatoes

Matching nutrients with crop needs to reduce nitrogen leaching

Identifying high nitrate areas for corrective action

(This article was originally published in The Guardian.)