The Rural Voice, 2005-02, Page 16A NEW 'SOURCE' OF HEADACHES?
The exact details of Source Water Protection regulations are still unknown
but farm leaders are already wary of what it could mean for farmers
By Keith Roulston
Tina Schankula has her hands
full as the February 14
deadline approaches for
comments on the reports of the
technical experts committee and the
implementation committee on
Watershed -Based Source Protection.
A research and policy advisor on
water issues with Ontario Federation
of Agriculture, Schankula has been
working with others in the
agricultural sector to craft a response
to the government's latest proposals
on implementing source water
protection. There are 300
recommendations between the two
reports, she says and it's impossible
to focus on them all so the key is to
identify those that will have most
affect on farmers, applaud those that
make sense and try to get those that
are unworkable changed.
12 THE RURAL VOICE
At this point there are more
unknowns than knowns about how
Source Water Protection will affect
landowners, she says. It's known, for
instance, that a Source Protection
Board, consisting of the conservation
authority for the watershed, will co-
ordinate the planning process for
source water protection. These
boards will establish a multi -
stakeholder Source Protection
Committee which will be responsible
for developing a source protection
plan.
What's not known at this point is
how these committees will be made
up. Schankula says she's heard there
will be two dedicated spots for
agriculture on the committees but
there's nothing certain about this yet.
There's also a concern that in areas
where there isn't a lot of support for
agriculture, farmers could be saddled
with a plan that doesn't take their
realities into consideration.
Concerns have also been raised
over the rumours that Environment
Minister Leona Dombrowsky is in a
hurry to implement the legislation.
Some people worry there will be
local committees in place before the
members know what the committee
is supposed to do, Schankula says.
There's pressure on the
government to move on the issue
because it's one of the
recommendations of Justice Dennis
O'Connor in his two -volume 2002
report on the Walkerton Water
Inquiry following the May 2000
tragedy when contaminated water
killed seven people and make 2,300
ill in Walkerton. O'Connor called
source protection "the first line of