Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute is recommending that governments across the country develop a national plan to sustainably manage and use water for the agri-food sector. In a report released Monday, the institute called for ambitious commitments from governments and partnerships with stakeholders to prioritize the critical natural resource.
The Bolduc family has been farming and ranching near Stavely, Alta., for generations and this year will be remembered for its scorching heat, lack of rain, parched fields, reduced yields and water restrictions. It's something their family and many others have seen before, but it doesn't make it any easier as they look to harvest whatever they can from their barley, alfalfa and corn fields.
Sean Stanford's wheat farm just south of Lethbridge, Alta. falls within the far left corner of Palliser's Triangle — an expanse of prairie grassland encompassing much of southeast Alberta, a swath of southern Saskatchewan, and the southwest corner of Manitoba. The area is named for explorer Capt. John Palliser, who in 1857, famously declared the entire region a wasteland — so hot and arid that no crops would ever grow.
The province has confirmed water of poor quality flowing through the Nooksack River in Washington state is coming from multiple sources in B.C. This comes a month after Washington farmers and officials called upon B.C. to investigate and address high levels of fecal bacteria coming from the Canadian side of the border. A joint letter sent in June from the Whatcom Family Farmers and the North Lynden Watershed Improvement District addressed to B.C. Premier David Eby and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said routine water quality testing done by Whatcom County and the state's agriculture department found bacteria at levels over 200 times higher than the water quality standard.
B.C. farmers and ranchers can better prepare for and mitigate impacts of climate change, while continuing to support the province’s food security and a sustainable environment through funding from the governments of Canada and British Columbia. Funding is available via the Beneficial Management Practices (BMP) program. “The Government of Canada is committed to helping our agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of climate change,” said Lawrence MacAulay, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “This investment will offer B.C. farmers the support they need to adapt their operations to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change, while protecting food security and the environment for future generations.”
In addition, the On-Farm Applied Research and Monitoring (ONFARM) program will be expanded and enhanced by an additional $7 million over five years. This program is a continuation from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership and will help farmers understand and communicate best on-farm practices to address and improve their soil health and water quality.
As summer droughts become increasingly common and more severe in B.C., farmers on the Sunshine Coast are asking to be exempt from emergency water usage restrictions. The district is currently under Stage 2 restrictions — where lawn watering is not permitted, and other types of water usage are permitted with restrictions — but provincial forecasters warn the province could face a long, unusually severe drought this year.
Authorities in a Western Japan city are investigating to determine how the water of a river that runs through the town has turned lime green. It’s caused great concern among citizens, but officials have run a test on the water and said it’s non-toxic. However, farmers have still been asked to avoid using it for agricultural purposes until safety is confirmed.
He said this is the wettest start to the summer he's ever seen, which has stopped crews from getting into the fields to pick the produce. The rain is also washing away pesticides that protect tree crops. "Every time we've gone into the orchards to mow or spray or do anything, it's rotted it up or just everything's gotten washed off, so it's definitely been challenging," he said. Spurr said he expects that could create quality issues with their harvest this year. Jordan Eyamie, the manager at Webster Farms, is facing the same problems. Her farm grows strawberries and raspberries. She said her farm has been struggling to protect the strawberries — which are ready to harvest — from something called Botrytis rot brought on by cool and wet conditions. "It's like a grey mould and that can be a season-ender if you can't get it under control," she said.
"We’re right on the border," said Fred Likkel, the executive director of Whatcom Family Farmers—pointing to parallel roads, which represent the border on a remote stretch of road near Double Ditch Stream. "There’s no other answer than it’s coming directly from Canada." The stream Likkel is standing alongside is one of five main drainages that originate in Bristish Columbia and flow into Washington, all draining into the Nooksack River and eventually downstream to Portage Bay and the Lummi Nation’s primary shellfish growing areas.
Washington state officials and farmers are calling on the British Columbia government to act on water quality reports that show large amounts of bacteria are flowing from north of the border into the Nooksack River watershed. They say high levels of fecal coliform — of which E. coli is a subgroup — are flowing from a Fraser Valley creek into Pepin Creek in Washington before entering the Nooksack, which empties into the sea near shellfish beds owned by the Lummi Nation.
Before the 2023 water season, contractors hired by Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation made repairs to Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District (LNID) canal’s lining that had be leaking for several years. But after the repairs were made and the water turned on in April, it was discovered more leaks had been created by the repair work.
Most canola crops are grown without requiring irrigation in the Prairies, the nation's agricultural heartland spanning nearly 1.8 million square kilometers (695,000 square miles). But the region is sensitive to droughts, whose frequency and severity have been steadily increasing. In this region, explains Phillip Harder, a hydrology researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, "crop production relies on water that accumulates throughout the year." In other words, snow that accumulates over winter and soaks into the ground during the spring thaw. But howling winds over fields that stretch as far as the eye can see have been blowing away much of that snow of late.
Before the 2023 water season, the Main Headworks Canal, located in the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District (LNID), was shut off so Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation could repair a liner that had been leaking for a few years. The district said when it was turned on in late-April, construction-related leaks were discovered extending the shutdown indefinitely, leaving farmers with just a fraction of their normal irrigation. They are now being told that the Keho Reservoir is also running low.
A northern Washington farmer advocacy group is calling on Gov. Jay Inslee to act swiftly to address poor water quality in their region due to what they claim is contamination flowing from rivers originating in Canada. In their June 6 letter to Inslee, Whatcom Family Farmers Executive Director Fred Likkel and Northern Lynden Water Improvement District President Larry Stap described the Nooksack River Basin as contaminated with "extremely high levels of bacteria" coming from the other side of the Canadian border. "Given the current issues surrounding international flooding, as well as issues surrounding water rights and an impending adjudication of water rights in Whatcom County, immediate action is imperative on this subject," the letter states.
A Nova Scotia farming group is concerned about the amount of water being used for agriculture this spring, but a provincial hydrologist says underground water levels are normal for this time of year. The current conditions have prompted Agriculture Canada to classify much of Nova Scotia as "abnormally dry," and categorize Truro and part of the Annapolis Valley as having a moderate drought. "It's getting to a point now where things are really drying out," said Allan Melvin, a sixth-generation farmer from the Annapolis Valley and president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.
Farmers can’t predict the future, but a new tool may help them get ahead of droughts and floods. The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association partnered with Aquanty, a Waterloo, Ont.-based water resources firm, to develop a forecasting tool for the Assiniboine River basin and Pembina Valley and Plum River watersheds of the Red River basin.
I discovered one obvious reality when I moved to Manitoba in 2001: water is a big, big issue here. And it’s often news. Farm news. Agriculture news. Winnipeg news. Indigenous news. Environmental news. Sometimes it even gets to be national news. Whether it’s floods, droughts, water pollution, drainage, wetlands, sewage plant costs or Canada-U.S. river crossings, water issues are often the most important in the province.
French President Emmanuel Macron sought to rally citizens around a plan to save water on Thursday and stressed that protests will not stop reforms, in a nod to both climate change and an unpopular pension bill. The water-saving plan includes 50 measures, such as fixing leaking pipes, adapting the way farmers and the nuclear industry use water and making water more expensive for those who use it in excess of basic needs.
An exciting, high-tech modelling project led by Pembina Valley Watershed District (PVWD) and Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) that will have the ability to forecast and detail water resources and water movement in the Pembina River Valley for farmers and land managers is nearing completion and readying for public launch. With funding of up to $152,250 provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) AgriRisk Initiatives Research and Development stream via the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, PVWD and MFGA have partnered with Aquanty, a software firm from Waterloo, Ontario, to construct a high-resolution HydroGeoSphere (HGS) simulation model that encompasses the full area of the PVWD. The tool will have the ability to forecast water resources such as soil moisture, groundwater, and surface water flow within a decision support tool that farmers, land managers, and decision-makers can access via a portal at MFGA.net.
