HALIFAX - The Ecology Action Centre wonders what the province has to show four years after the release of Water for Life: Nova Scotia’s Water Resource Management Strategy in 2010. The latest progress report, quietly released Wednesday by Nova Scotia Environment is barely four pages long, 50% shorter than the 2012 Progress Report. Within the strategy, the province committed to keep Nova Scotians informed about the health of Nova Scotia’s water resources and to actually do something to make sure our waters are swimmable, drinkable, and fishable. The sparseness of this progress report suggests that the province is no longer committed to making water a priority.
The EAC feels that after committing so many provincial resources to developing the strategy including comprehensive public consultations beginning in 2008, and the release of multiple reports (Towards a Water Resources Management Strategy for NS (2008), What we Heard (2009), Water for Life (2010)), we should be reporting on great progress towards cleaner, safer water. Sadly that is not the case.
“Blue-green algae blooms persist in South West Nova Scotia, the pulp mill at Abercrombie Point is still pumping toxins into Boat Harbour, property-owners can still clear-cut or develop right down to the shoreline or river’s edge with no repercussions” says Jocelyne Rankin, Water Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre. In fact, according to the Auditor General, we should be concerned about our drinking water, since Nova Scotia’s Environment department isn’t adequately monitoring public drinking water supplies. “Clean water in this province is increasingly at risk” says Rankin.
A simple action the province can take to keep water safe and healthy is to create legislation requiring buffers and setbacks. A riparian buffer is a strip of vegetated land adjacent to a watercourse or coastline. Riparian buffers improve water quality by filtering out pollutants and sediments, conserve wildlife habitat, and protect people and property from floods. Riparian buffers repeatedly came up as a clear priority for Nova Scotians in the What we Heard (2009) report, as well as a high priority within the water strategy itself. They were also identified as priorities within the Natural Resource Strategy, and in the draft Coastal Strategy.
Riparian buffers are the most cost-effective way to keep water safe, and are widely used in many other jurisdictions. The EAC wonders why the province is so reluctant to implement this approach in Nova Scotia when it has been repeatedly identified as a priority. The province commissioned a comprehensive study of Setbacks and Vegetated Buffers in Nova Scotia, which was completed in 2012 but no further action was taken. “We were almost there” exclaims Rankin. “A lot of work has already been done on vegetated buffers, there were clearly considered next steps, but where has it gone?”
Even forestry operations that are required by regulation to leave a 20 meter buffer along watercourses are not being adequately enforced. “The Department of Natural Resources no longer tracks compliance with respect to watercourse buffers as part of their annual accountability reporting framework. This, despite the fact that compliance numbers trended downwards and they have never seen more than 30% compliance” says EAC’s Forestry Coordinator Matt Miller.
“When a Provincial Strategy is released with no timelines, clear targets or resources, this is the sorry state that we are left with” says Rankin. We need the Provincial Government to pull up their bootstraps and show some leadership on water. Nova Scotians are the ones who stand to lose the most due to government inaction. If we want our children to have swimmable, drinkable, fishable water – we need the Provincial government to take action today, starting with riparian buffers on all our watercourses.
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