The Quebec government is hoping a new pilot project, starting this fall, will help reduce major water use when river water levels dip too low during periods of drought.
The project will run in the Centre-du-Québec region, on a voluntary basis, for the next three years, says Quebec’s Environment Ministry.
Its objective is to reduce withdrawals from the river to preserve the water for essential use and ecosystems, in areas where the demand for it is high, says ministry spokesperson Louis Potvin, in an emailed statement.
During a summer of relentless heat, the St. Lawrence River reached its lowest water level in four years, dipping 60 centimetres below average in August. The bodies of water that feed it also suffered a similar fate.
Potvin says the sources of pressure on Quebec’s rivers and lakes vary, depending on the time of the year. He says it’s why the pilot project will target every sector of activity.
According to data collected by the Ministry of Environment, major consumers in the region include industries, municipalities, aqua-culture facilities and cranberry farms. Consumers, using 50,000 litres of water or more per day, even if it is just for one day, are among those that have to disclose their water consumption amounts.
The Centre-du-Québec region is home to most of Canada’s cranberry production which has been steadily growing over the last decade, according to the Quebec Cranberry Growers Association, also known as APCQ.
Workers pull floating cranberries toward a syphon in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, Que., in 2011. Cranberry producers use water, rainwater for the most part, to flood fields throughout the year in order to protect the plants, keep insects at bay and collect the berries. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
“We don’t want our fellow citizens to lack water,” said the APCQ’s president, Vincent Godin.
But the Ministry of Environment is concerned about what the industry’s growth might potentially mean for the region’s water supply after it conducted an internal investigation on the matter, as reported by Radio-Canada.
Cranberry producers use water, rainwater for the most part, to flood fields throughout the year in order to protect the plants during the winter, keep insects at bay during the spring and collect the berries which float to the surface in the fall.
However, not all cranberry farms declare their water consumption volumes and the ministry’s investigation showed the data provided was at times unreliable.
The ministry’s pilot project will be lead in collaboration with the APCQ, according to Quebec’s environment minister and agriculture minister, who issued a joint statement to Radio-Canada.
As part of the project, major water users in the same river basin will be notified if the water level reaches a certain threshold and would have to reduce their consumption until it returns to normal.
The mayor of Nicolet, Que., Geneviève Dubois, said she’s happy about the project and how the Nicolet River, which borders the municipality, will be prioritized. Its recorded water flow has been well under the historical median since July, according to data from the Environment Ministry.
“We often criticize the government for only reacting when the catastrophe is already here, so we applaud the government’s proactive approach to thinking about this issue in advance,” she said.
But André Bélanger, the executive director of the Fondation Rivières, a group that advocates for the protection and revitalization of rivers, says the project’s success hinges on compliance from the industrial sector.
“For industries, there are significant costs to stop consuming water,” said Bélanger.
“We hope that the pilot project will be large enough to allow us to quickly implement active management that is more significant across the territory.”