dry summer in 2025<\/a>, the provincial government has seen an increase in applications for irrigation wells as farmers look to ensure their crops get the water they need for a strong season.<\/p>\nOfficials with P.E.I.\u2019s Department of Land and Environment said they received just over 140 applications for groundwater exploration permits for this year, up from an average of 20 to 30 most years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For farmers applying to drill a high-capacity well, the province has rules in place to protect the Island\u2019s water resource.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first step is obtaining a groundwater exploration permit, which costs $50 and involves a test well to be drilled to determine if the desired volume and quality of water is available and environmentally acceptable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second step in the process requires applying for a water withdrawal permit, which is necessary for large water users needing more than 25 cubic metres a day.<\/p>\n
There were about 60 high-capacity wells in use for agriculture in the province before last summer’s drought.<\/p>\n
‘Our water usage is sustainable’<\/p>\n
Qing Li, a provincial hydrogeologist, said the number of permits approved is also subject to strict conditions set out in P.E.I.\u2019s Water Act \u2014 so even if every high-capacity well in the province is in use in a given year, they won\u2019t come close to using the Island\u2019s entire groundwater supply.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Qing Li, a hydrogeologist with P.E.I.’s Department of Land and Environment, says the Island’s groundwater supply is recovering each year because people are using a sustainable amount. (Barry Acton\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201c[For] every permit, we need careful assessment to protect our water resources, making sure everyone issued a permit fits our criteria and protects our drinking water,\u201d Li said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said groundwater levels have recovered after last year\u2019s drought thanks to a lot of snow over the winter months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite 2025\u2019s dry summer, Li said a drought of that proportion is a one-in-20-year event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re every year recovering because the water taken by human beings is only a small amount,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cOur water usage is sustainable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some farmers like Townshend, however, still don\u2019t want to take a risk with their crops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775570530_653_default.jpg\")
Townshend has about 1.5 kilometres of irrigation pipes to get into the ground at her farm for the spring. (Aaron Adetuyi\/CBC)<\/p>\n
She said her overall yield was down about 25 per cent last year, while the cost of running the farm has gone up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If all goes well by the spring, Townshend will have assurance that she\u2019ll be able to irrigate a portion of her crop this year \u2014 if she needs to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving some supplementary irrigation, even though it\u2019s only going to be on 10 per cent of our crop, I think will \u2026 help us sleep at night and keep us sustainable on this farm,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not chasing record yields, we\u2019re just trying to reduce some of the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769398288_891_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Irrigation requests spike from P.E.I. potato growers hurting from drought losses<\/p>\n
A growing number of P.E.I. potato growers are applying to add irrigation systems over the next couple of years after drought hit their 2025 crops hard. CBC\u2019s Nancy Russell visited a potato operation in central P.E.I. that has applied for 14 wells \u2014 a multimillion-dollar investment that owners say the farm needs to remain competitive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-588133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n