The Environment Canada Policy Research Seminar Series

Emil Frind November 10, 2004

On November 10, 2004, Environment Canada was pleased to host Emil Frind who is recognized globally as a leading expert on groundwater modelling. Dr. Frind’s presentation entitled “Groundwater: Protecting a National Treasure” addressed a spectrum of current groundwater issues that are relevant not only at the local community level, but also at the national and international levels. The following is a précis of his talk.

Our Dependence on Groundwater

Canada is fortunate to be endowed with 7% of the world’s renewable freshwater. Our groundwater is a resource of enormous importance to Canada, as 10 million Canadians rely on groundwater directly, while all Canadians rely on groundwater indirectly through agriculture. Our ecosystems are sustained by groundwater, and the economy also depends on groundwater.

It is therefore somewhat surprising that the importance of groundwater often goes unrecognized until a crisis occurs. May 2000 was a defining moment for groundwater protection in Canada. The infiltration of E. coli into the public water system from Well #5 in Walkerton, Ontario, and the deaths and widespread illness that ensued, drew much attention to the management and state of groundwater. Another example of an oversight in groundwater management occurred in Smithville, Ontario, where PCBs leaked into fractured bedrock resulting in clean-up costs upwards of $100 million, with questionable benefit. Crises of this sort cause the public to lose their trust in the public water supply.

Dr. Frind contends that a total lack of groundwater protection made the tragic event at Walkerton inevitable and almost predictable. A flurry of government activity since May 2000 has produced pending government legislation on source water protection that is expected to prevent recurrence of an event of this magnitude. Dr. Frind expressed his strong hope that we learn from the mistakes made at Walkerton, and devoted his talk to offering advice on how we may better develop our knowledge about Canadian groundwater resources.

Threats to Groundwater

Although most Canadians are fortunate to have good drinking water, the quality of groundwater in most urbanized and industrialized areas is threatened by land-use practices. Problem issues include, for example, leaking decommissioned landfills, leaking fuel storage facilities, industrial solvents, municipal wastewater effluents, and road salt application to streets and highways. A serious problem in most rural areas is agricultural pollution by nutrients, pesticides and bacteria/viruses. In northern areas, thousands of abandoned mines are leaking dissolved metals into ground and surface waters. Another looming threat is climate change, which could cause unpredictable changes in groundwater levels and in water availability.

The Impacts of Population Growth on Groundwater

Population growth directly impacts the quality and quantity of both ground and surface water. First, it increases the demand for water resources. Second, it expands urban boundaries since people are increasingly choosing to reside in rural areas, which then become suburbs. This impacts groundwater recharge through the increase of impervious areas (roads, houses), thus reducing the quantity of water available for use. Third, the risk of contamination due to road salt, pesticides and other contaminants increases and impacts the quality of the water. Unfortunately, in present planning practice, these impacts are often not considered, or considered only as afterthoughts. The carrying capacity of the resource should be a primary factor when deciding where and how much growth should occur.

The Grand River Watershed and Waterloo Region

The Grand River Watershed west of Lake Ontario supports a population that has increased by 30 percent over the last 20 years, to 800 000 inhabitants. This is accompanied by intensive agricultural activity and expanding urban areas. Consequently, the river must assimilate an increasing load of nutrients and suspended sediment, with the result that water quality in its southern reaches is impacted. Although phosphate loading has been declining in the river since the 1970s, other contaminants such as chloride and nitrate are increasing. The Grand River is the main water source for some communities in the southern part of the watershed.

The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is the largest community in the Grand River Watershed, with a population of about 470,000 on an area of 400 km2. About 75% of the Region’s drinking water comes from groundwater. The Region is expected to further grow as the Greater Toronto Area expands by 4 million people by 2031. Recognizing the need to protect its groundwater, Waterloo Region has adopted a wellhead protection strategy that places controls on development within sensitive areas, and it became the first municipality in Canada to establish a boundary line to curb urban sprawl and protect key groundwater recharge areas.

The increasing stress on the local water resource, both in terms of quantity and quality, may require a new water source for Waterloo Region to be found eventually. Many see a pipeline to one of the Great Lakes as a solution. A pipeline, however, does not solve the problem of sewage assimilation, and it creates other problems associated with interbasin water transfer. It is also very expensive. Thus Dr. Frind cautions against over-reliance on technological solutions down the road that promise to remove natural constraints to growth.

The Role of Groundwater Modelling

A rational and effective groundwater management strategy requires that we know the capacity of the resource and the quality of the water; it requires that we protect the resource by preventing new contamination and maintaining recharge; and it requires that we apply appropriate ways to remediate existing contamination. Thus we need comprehensive inventory and monitoring programs for our groundwater resources, and we need to develop effective groundwater protection and remediation strategies.

Groundwater modelling is the only way to integrate the vast amounts of data involved and to provide the fundamental understanding of complex groundwater flow systems needed for effective management. Models can give reliable water balances showing the capacity of the resource, and they can reveal flow paths showing where the water comes from, where it is going, and what migration paths contaminants will follow. Models will also show the response of the system to stresses and will identify areas of high sensitivity. Furthermore, they show the cumulative impact of multiple sources of contamination, and they are valuable for assessing the effectiveness of remediation measures. In groundwater protection, models are used to identify the areas (capture zones) from which a well draws its water, and to assess the risk of contamination of the well.

Dr. Frind provided examples where groundwater modelling has been used very effectively to provide the insights needed as a basis for the decision-making process. One example was the assessment of road salt contamination found in the aquifers of Waterloo Region. Road salts have been used at an increasing rate for the last 50 years, and as a result, one of the Region’s well fields has been showing steadily increasing chloride concentrations. Modelling revealed extensive chloride plumes originating at major arterial roads, and provided an assessment of various strategies to control the salt impact on the wells.

Toward a National Groundwater Strategy

Having been a pioneer in groundwater research for over 30 years, Emil Frind used the occasion of his address at Environment Canada to make some observations about the state of groundwater management in Canada.

Our national groundwater strategy must be based on the concept of sustainability on an intergenerational basis. Sustainability means that clean water must be available in sufficient quantity and quality not just for today’s needs, but also for the needs of future generations, as well as the needs of a healthy ecosystem. A vision for this concept has recently been laid out in a report by the National Committee on Groundwater under the auspices of Natural Resources Canada, and Dr. Frind strongly urges the Government of Canada to support this initiative. The realization of the vision of sustainability must be based on a sound understanding of the resource, backed by comprehensive inventories, quantitative assessments through integrated modelling, and long-term (intergenerational) planning. It must also be flexible enough to be able to respond to new challenges such as climate change, which could result in changing groundwater levels and unexpected stresses on the groundwater resource. Intergenerational planning remains a challenge, as it requires a much longer time frame than the typical time frame politicians are accustomed to, which is delineated by the length of their term in political office.

Dr. Frind commended the aquifer inventory programs now initiated by Natural Resources Canada and the Ontario Geological Survey as the first steps in developing a national database on groundwater. Groundwater inventories must cover both quantity and quality, and they must be continually expanded, updated, and interpreted. Given their vital importance, Dr. Frind strongly recommended that these inventory programs be funded on an ongoing basis. He also expressed his hope that data generated in these programs remain in the public domain so they are accessible for research organizations like universities. These databases are essential in the assessment of impact and risk arising from threats and stresses on our groundwater resources.

Dr. Frind commented that Canadian Government decision-makers could make more effective use of the knowledge resources at Canadian universities. Indeed, in his experience, Canadian academic researchers are more often asked to give advice to government agencies outside of Canada compared to domestic ones. On the other hand, Dr. Frind openly questioned whether researchers at Canadian universities are adequately promoting emerging science to the public and to decision-makers in Canada.

Conclusion

Given its centrality to the day-to-day lives of Canadians, we must treasure our groundwater. To protect this vital resource, to manage it sustainably into the future, and to assess threats and risks to availability and quality, a comprehensive knowledge base on groundwater must be developed. Inventory programs for generating the required knowledge base focused on both quantity and quality should be expanded. Nationwide comprehensive groundwater protection strategies should be developed. In land-use decisions, groundwater impact and compatibility with protection objectives should be a key factor.