{"id":483086,"date":"2026-06-09T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/483086\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:22:09","slug":"quebec-municipalities-and-environmentalists-say-provinces-water-reserves-are-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/483086\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec municipalities and environmentalists say province’s water reserves are at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A group of environmental organizations and municipalities are worried that Quebec\u2019s groundwater reserves are dwindling due to overconsumption and the effects of climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an open letter sent to the environment minister, the 12 municipalities and nine environmental organizations say the province is consuming more groundwater than is being replenished.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The municipalities located along the Saint-Lawrence Valley say Quebec has taken its renewable freshwater for granted, and they are calling on the government to trigger a province-wide evaluation and increase regulation. <\/p>\n

“In Quebec, we have long believed that water was an infinite resource. Gone are the days of rose-tinted glasses,” they wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n

Quebec holds three per cent of the world\u2019s renewable freshwater reserves, but water preservation groups like Eau Secours and Scabric say droughts and urban sprawl are putting pressure on the natural resource.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aquifers \u2014 sediment saturated with freshwater \u2014 are connected to surface bodies of water, says Scabric president Daniel Pilon. While aquifers can store large amounts of water that supply human activity, depletion can cause rivers to dry up, he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In Quebec, there are lakes everywhere. We\u2019re rich in water, that\u2019s true. But now, we\u2019re going through a period of drought, a time when people are overusing this resource,” Pilon said.<\/p>\n

Scabric is a non-profit organization formed in 1993 and mandated to improve water and soil quality in the Ch\u00e2teauguay area\u2019s drainage basins. Pilon says the organization started recording a strain on groundwater in 2015.<\/p>\n

Though Pilon\u2019s organization is limited in scope, he says other organizations monitoring drainage basins across Quebec reported similar findings.<\/p>\n

However, he says it\u2019s hard to know the extent of the issue and come up with solutions without a government-mandated study across the province handled by the Bureau d\u2019audiences publiques sur l\u2019environnement.<\/p>\n

“We need to ask ourselves some questions because the situation is getting worse,” said Pilon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He says that those in rural areas in the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie region who depend on groundwater for daily consumption are having to dig their wells deeper each year. Some farmers struggle with irrigation, he adds.<\/p>\n

Last year, the town of Sutton, Que., had crates of water shipped in because it feared a water shortage.<\/p>\n

Pilon says increasingly hot summers and reduced rainfall are part of the problem. While some fluctuation is expected every year, the trend is worrisome, he says.<\/p>\n

Frequent droughts threaten water reserves<\/p>\n

According to the Canadian Climate Institute, climate change has made droughts more frequent and severe worldwide, making it harder to replenish natural water reserves.<\/p>\n

Eau Secours president R\u00e9becca P\u00e9trin says there has also been a shift in how land is managed due to urban sprawl, which contributes to the problem. She says agricultural land has been drained and large areas have been made “waterproof,” meaning that rainwater is quickly channelled to a drainage system and into rivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | Why municipalities want a provincewide evaluation of groundwater levels :\"\"<\/p>\n

Are groundwater reserves on Montreal\u2019s South Shore at risk?<\/p>\n

Environmental organizations and municipalities say groundwater levels in Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie-West are lower than normal, and they’re calling on the Quebec government to hold a provincewide evaluation. According to the Environment Ministry, 27 per cent of the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie population relies on the area\u2019s groundwater.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re draining our water away; we\u2019re not retaining it. So, we\u2019re seeing droughts occur much more quickly because the land hasn\u2019t been able to absorb the water,\u201d says P\u00e9trin. \u201cIf we don\u2019t retain the water, we don\u2019t give it a chance to seep into the ground and eventually replenish the groundwater [that many people rely on].\u201d<\/p>\n

P\u00e9trin and Pilon say that while there are some easy solutions \u2014 increasing sponge parks, marshes and retention basins, and banning lawn sprinklers \u2014 large-scale changes can only be implemented through government intervention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Pascale D\u00e9ry told journalists on Monday that a shortage of groundwater is “concerning,” but said there are measures in place to protect water already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Do we need to go further? Maybe, I think we need to have that discussion,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

D\u00e9ry said she would talk to her colleagues to see if the provincewide evaluation is the best tool before moving forward. <\/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":483087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-483086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}