Environment Canada: Atlantic Region News Releases

CHARLOTTETOWN, November 18, 2003 – The Honourable David Anderson, Canada’s Minister of the Environment, and the Honourable Jamie Ballem, Minister of Environment and Energy for Prince Edward Island, today announced that the governments of Canada and PEI will work in cooperation with a number of partners over the next two years to conduct agricultural pesticide research and monitoring programs in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

“I am pleased to announce the Government of Canada’s contribution of $460,000 from the new Pesticide Science Fund to support programs that will help establish a broader database of scientific information to better assess the impacts of pesticides on groundwater, surface water, air quality, and fish, while evaluating ways of reducing environmental damage, such as fish kills,” said Minister Anderson. “The new Pesticide Science Fund will invest $7 million over the next five years to enhance the Government of Canada's knowledge base related to the environmental presence and effects of priority pesticides in Canada through nationally-coordinated research to improve our capacity for environmental protection and conservation.”

"In response to Islanders' concerns about the potential impacts of pesticide use, the Government of Prince Edward Island made a commitment in the 2003 provincial budget to ongoing, long-term monitoring of pesticide residues in the environment," said Minister Ballem. "With this additional funding, I am pleased to announce that the Province will
invest $210,000 in this joint pesticide monitoring work. As well, the Department of Environment and Energy, and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Forestry will provide staff support for the pesticide research initiative."

Even when pesticides are used in accordance with label directions, there remains a risk of pesticide-related fish kills caused by rainfall events. Provincial and federal government personnel working in cooperation with the farming community have taken a number of measures over the past few years to try to reduce the impact of pesticides in the environment.

The first program consists of research aimed at reducing the effects of pesticides in streams and rivers. It has six components that are now underway:

• assessing the toxicity of pesticides to fish;
• determining the amounts of pesticides in runoff water from agricultural land;
• determining the harmful effects of pesticide runoff in streams;
• determining how land management practices affect the amount of pesticide runoff;
• determining the effectiveness of riparian buffer zones in reducing pesticide runoff; and,
• developing models to accurately predict the amounts of pesticides that may end up in streams from runoff water.

Under the second program monitoring of groundwater, surface water, the air, fish and shellfish will be conducted. This information will enable scientists to better evaluate the exposures of people and wildlife to pesticide residues. This program has four components:

• Groundwater monitoring will be undertaken at 30 domestic water supply wells in high-risk areas, and at an additional 60 selected domestic and public water supply wells in PEI.
• Surface water, sediment and runoff waters in three river systems that have had fish kills in the past will be monitored for pesticide residue under various rainfall and runoff situations. A number of surface water monitoring sites are also being established in agricultural areas of New Brunswick for comparative purposes.
• Air monitoring will be done at sites close to pesticide application areas in PEI.
• Fish and shellfish in PEI will be tested for pesticide residues.

The other key contributors involved in these two programs include the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government; the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture; the PEI Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Forestry; Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; the University of PEI; the University of New Brunswick; Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency; as well as Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The results of these studies will be provided to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, provincial government permitting departments, and community stakeholders to help develop better ways to prevent pesticides from entering watercourses through runoff, which may include best management practices. This initiative reflects a collaborative approach on the part of Environment Canada, Health Canada, and provincial governments to manage the risks associated with pesticide use.

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For additional information contact:

Environment Canada:
Clair Murphy (902) 566 7042
Bill Ernst (902) 426-5048

PEI Department of Environment and Energy:
Sandra Lambe (902) 368-5286