Across the country, scientists from Environment Canada's National Water Research Institute (NWRI) investigate environmental threats to Canadian freshwater. The NWRI operates research sites in every region of Canada, from the St. John River in New Brunswick to the Great Lakes, from prairie wetlands to West Coast rivers, from small urban ponds to huge remote lakes in the Northwest Territories.
However, in order for this research to protect Canada's waters effectively, it must reach decision-makers and officials – the people and organizations who make guidelines, codes of practice, regulations, and laws.
Meeting of the Minds
The Institute, along with provincial partners, brought together many of Canada's key people in the areas of water research, policy development and program delivery from federal, provincial, territorial and municipal jurisdictions as well as other organizations to communicate directly and to share important research findings. This was done on behalf of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, which has made water quality a top priority. The objective of these workshops was to share information and also to provide opportunities for policy-makers to give input to the scientific community.
In these meetings, they discussed topics identified as priorities by provincial and territorial representatives:
- Impacts of agricultural practices on water quality
- Groundwater quality
- Water reuse and recycling
- Wastewater treatment for small communities
- Water quality monitoring
Impacts of Agricultural Practices
Over the last 40 years, there has been a surge in agricultural operations. This intensification has amplified the risk of contamination of surface and ground waters by pollutants such as nutrients and pesticides, pathogenic organisms, endocrine disrupting compounds, and veterinary pharmaceuticals in agricultural soils fertilized with manure. Workshop participants identified several areas where research efforts should be strengthened in order to address contamination concerns.
Recent agricultural policies, initiatives and evolving technologies to minimize risks were also presented. For example technological developments such as global positioning systems (GPS), automated machine guidance, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and mobile computing now make it possible to manage crop variability within a field by precisely tailoring inputs to crop needs.
As a result of this exchange, decision-makers and officials are better equipped to make stronger policies and regulations in this area.
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