The P.E.I. government is deciding whether it will keep or reverse a long-standing moratorium on high capacity irrigation wells, meaning a years-long debate that led to the creation of legislation to protect the province's water supply may not be over.

"The experts, at least in the government, are saying we have enough water in that groundwater recharge," said Environment Minister Brad Trivers following a presentation from senior bureaucrats in his department to the standing committee on natural resources and environmental sustainability.

The province is currently developing a second draft of regulations to govern water extraction under the Water Act, legislation passed in 2017 but still not in effect pending the completion of this and three other sets of regulations.

The moratorium was written into the first draft of the extraction regulations. When asked if it would also be included in the second draft, Trivers said "we're looking for feedback from the committee on that front. You know, we'll have to make that decision."

Trivers said the province has to "make sure if there's a moratorium on high capacity wells for agriculture, we have the science to support that."

Under pressure

The province is under pressure from the agriculture industry to lift the moratorium, which was first enacted in 2002 as an order of cabinet.

The standing committee on natural resources and environmental sustainability heard from provincial bureaucrats Thursday, who say irrigation uses 600 million litres of groundwater annually — a fraction of the 12.8 billion litres used by industries as a whole. (Kerry Campbell/CBC)

A submission from the P.E.I. Potato Board as part of consultations on the draft regulations last November said the moratorium results in an issue of "fundamental unfairness" to the agriculture industry.

"Farmers do not have the same access" to water as other industrial users, the board's general manager Greg Donald wrote, "despite an absence of any data demonstrating that irrigation is having or would have a detrimental impact on groundwater. This discrimination infringes on the rights of Island farmers to access a public resource to which all other industries and persons in the province have access."

Continuing to restrict access to water for irrigation, Donald wrote, "would be very hard to defend if challenged."

The P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture also stated in its submission its long-standing position that the moratorium be lifted, and that to continue to restrict farmers and not other industries "amounts to discrimination."

The federation said if it is government's position that "the science is not adequate or not detailed enough to support the lifting of the moratorium … the PEIFA would suggest we conduct further research."

All watersheds not created equal

At Thursday's committee meeting, bureaucrats provided a presentation showing irrigation uses up to 600 million litres of groundwater on P.E.I. each year — a fraction of the 12.8 billion litres that goes to industrial uses.

Environment Minister Brad Trivers, far left, says even though plans to develop a Water Act for P.E.I. were announced six years ago, more research needs to be done on P.E.I.'s water table. (Kerry Campbell/CBC)

They also said P.E.I.'s water usage only amounts to 1.5 per cent of the annual recharge of 2.4 trillion litres from snow and rainwater, and that the province could safely use up to 35 per cent.

"The sustainability of the groundwater on P.E.I. is extremely high," said Bruce Raymond, manager of air and water monitoring for the province.

But the availability of water and the demands on that resource are not uniform across P.E.I., requiring more careful management in some watersheds than others, it was explained.

And climate change is adding further pressures: while the province isn't expecting a significant decrease in the annual recharge of the water table, how and when that recharge occurs is changing.

Longer, drier periods in summer with rain falling earlier in the spring and later in the fall will put further pressure on Island farmers, Raymond explained. "It will change their world fairly dramatically. … Their demand and desire for water is going to grow."

'Unbiased, 3rd-party research' needed

Opposition Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said agricultural practices in P.E.I. need to be reassessed based on those environmental concerns before there's any move to expand irrigation by lifting the moratorium.

"I would not be in favour of lifting the moratorium today. Let me be clear on that," he said.

"Are we doing everything that we can to improve the health of the soil? Are we looking at supporting farmers to identify crops that could potentially grow in the changing climate that we have, in the soil conditions that we're faced with?"

Even though plans to develop the Water Act were announced six years ago — when Robert Ghiz was premier — Trivers said there is yet more research that needs to be done with regards to seasonal variations in P.E.I.'s water table.

He said he wants "unbiased, third-party research" that doesn't involve industry — research that he won't even commission or pay for out of fear it "may be political" to have any government involvement.

"There have been rumblings that there are academics who want to do this research so we'll see what comes," he said, adding that the research wouldn't be available before a second draft of the Water Act regulations is put before committee, which could be a month from now.

Under the Water Act, regulations have to be presented before a committee of the legislature 90 days before they can be enacted by cabinet.

Trivers said final regulations could come to committee in time for the Water Act to be enacted in four months.

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