Canada Water Act annual report for 2016 to 2017: chapter 6
6. Ecosystem-based approaches to water quality management
This section describes a number of key cooperation-based ecosystem approaches through which ECCC works to ensure that Canadians have access to clean, safe and healthy water, and that the country’s water resources are used wisely, both economically and ecologically.
ECCC’s Ecosystem Initiatives are cooperative, place-based programs designed to deliver environmental results in targeted ecosystems. The objective of the Ecosystem Initiatives is to enhance or maintain ecosystem sustainability by addressing a range of local or regional environmental challenges through partnership-based work. Local activities are coordinated by ECCC and undertaken in collaboration with a range of local partners and stakeholders that may include other federal departments, provinces and territories, regional, municipal and local governments, Indigenous peoples, federal and state governments in the United States, businesses, non-governmental and community organizations, and colleges and universities.
6.1 Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives
The Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives program provides grants and contributions funding for projects that improve the health, productivity, and long-term sustainability of ecosystems in Atlantic Canada. The program supports projects that use an ecosystem-based approach and include broad collaborations and cooperative action resulting in positive environmental impacts throughout Atlantic Canada. The program funds Atlantic Canadian organizations, including non-government organizations, coalitions and networks of organizations, research and academic institutions, and Indigenous governments and organizations to deliver projects that address one or more of the three program priority issues of water quality, habitat and biodiversity, and the impacts of climate change.
ECCC contributed funding, technical and scientific expertise, and direct staff support, for water quality projects that will improve the assessment, monitoring, modeling, and mitigation of multiple stressors and their cumulative effects on water quality in Atlantic Canada from headwaters to estuaries.
In 2016–2017, seven projects addressed water issues quality, habitat and biodiversity, and impacts of climate change. ECCC committed over $568,000 for these projects. The following examples demonstrate the type of projects that were funded:
- In Nova Scotia, the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq partnered with the Fort Folly Habitat Recovery Program in New Brunswick to conduct comprehensive ecosystem assessments in two watersheds surrounded by heavy agricultural land use. By conducting surface water quality and CABIN monitoring, pesticide contamination in species testing, and runoff modelling, the group will identify potential stressors on surface water quality, habitat quality, and contamination of riparian and freshwater organisms. A ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ approachFootnote 8 is being used to integrate Mi’kmaw traditional knowledge with western science to identify the full impacts of agriculture on Mi’kmaw communities.
- In Newfoundland and Labrador, C-Core developed a framework for wetland mapping and monitoring for the province and produced wetland inventory maps of the Avalon Peninsula using remote sensing technologies. As the transition zone between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, wetlands serve vital hydrological, ecological, habitat and biodiversity function, making it important to complete the wetland inventory for the province of Newfoundland, which has not been done previously. The completed wetland inventory provides comparative data across Atlantic Canada to allow for a region-wide approach to land use planning and conservation activities.
- In two watersheds, one in New Brunswick and one in Nova Scotia, Dalhousie University collected baseline water quality data with a focus on nutrient inputs from different sources such as municipal wastewater effluent, septic systems, wetlands and storm water runoff. One watershed is predominantly used for agriculture, while the other primarily supplies residential development. The data collected is being used to calibrate nutrient loading models to assess the potential impacts to water quality due to anticipated climate change stressors in the two watersheds with very different types of land uses.
6.2 Gulf of Maine Initiative
ECCC is working collaboratively with other federal departments, provincial governments, U.S. governments, and community groups to help advance efforts that enhance conservation and promote responsible development in the Gulf of Maine transboundary ecosystem, which includes watersheds and coastline in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The focus of the Gulf of Maine Initiative (GMI) is enhancing collaborative efforts to build knowledge of the ecosystem—watershed and coast—to better understand its current condition and identify stressors and threats to help inform decisions.
ECCC contributed funding, technical and scientific expertise, and direct staff support for water quality projects. These contributions are improving assessment, monitoring, and modeling of the area and will lead to the mitigation of multiple stressors and their cumulative effects on water quality in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem.
In 2016–2017, all four multi-year projects address water quality issues in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem:
- Building upon data from two previous projects, the Gulf of Maine Council are creating data-based action plans for six Bay of Fundy estuaries. The action plans will provide local watershed organizations a basis to create targeted environmental management strategies. This ensures that there is a cohesive, science-based strategy for environmental management at the watershed level.
- The Nature Conservancy of Canada is classifying the biological and ecological diversity within watersheds by developing a seamless aquatic ecosystem classification and stress index across the Canadian portion of the Gulf of Maine and prioritizing watersheds and stressors within watersheds for conservation and restoration.
- Eastern Charlotte Waterways Inc. in partnership with Dalhousie University are completing a baseline assessment of pH in the estuarine environments of the Bay of Fundy.
- The University of New Brunswick will quantify impacts of salmon aquaculture on invertebrate and fish communities of shallow coastal habitats of the Canadian Gulf of Maine and provide recommendations to reduce the associated impacts on water quality.
In addition to the grants and contributions funded projects, in 2016–2017, ECCC worked in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Natural Resources Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to share data and information to develop an estuary characterization framework, and to draft preliminary profiles of key estuaries within the Bay of Fundy portion of the Gulf of Maine. ECCC also collaborated with DFO, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations through the Gulf of Maine Council on the Maine Environment to produce a State of the Gulf of Maine – Watershed Status report.
6.3 St. Lawrence Action Plan
The St. Lawrence Action Plan (http://planstlaurent.qc.ca/en/home.html) is a collaborative effort between the Canadian and Quebec governments to protect, conserve, and enhance the St. Lawrence ecosystem. This multi-year program, which has been renewed five times since it was first signed in 1988, has helped produce concrete results through the cooperative efforts of the two governments. Their efforts have benefited from participation by the private sector, universities, research centres, Areas of Prime Concern committees (zone d’intervention prioritaire, known as ZIP committees), non-governmental organizations and riverside communities. The program focuses on all of the St. Lawrence River’s ecosystems and on the mouths of its main tributaries, from Lake Saint-François, straddling the border between Quebec and Ontario, to the eastern reaches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The Canada-Quebec Agreement on the St. Lawrence 2011-2026, also known as the St. Lawrence Action Plan, covers a span of 15 years, with 5-year planning cycles.
For the year 2016–2017, the second phase work plan (2016–2021) was launched, which included 37 projects from the joint action program for which a number of research projects, fieldwork activities, and decision-making tools are being developed, including:
- The identification of important fish and interconnected habitat for protection and restoration.
- An Integrated Biodiversity Conservation Plan for the Lowlands and Coastal Areas of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- A study of the potential for reestablishing the functional connectivity of biodiversity hotspots in the St. Lawrence lowlands, including tools for knowledge transfer.
- Wetland rehabilitation guidance for the St. Lawrence.
- The integration of wildlife and habitat issues with the potential for marine transportation development.
- The promotion of recreational fishing along the St. Lawrence, including the implementation of an incentive program.
- The establishment of a committee to promote and better integrate climate change issues.
- The quantification of the contribution of dissolved and particulate organic matter to hypoxia and the acidification of the deep waters of the St. Lawrence estuary.
- A study of the impacts of hydrocarbons and dispersants on aquatic freshwater organisms.
- A study of the use of retention ponds to capture pesticides and nutrients in surface water and agricultural runoff in the Lake Saint-Pierre area.
- A study of the current state and evolution of the weed beds and plant ecosystems of Lake Saint-Pierre, including the impacts of algal blooms and the presence of cyanotoxins.
- A study of the ecotoxicological effects of sewage discharge from the city of Montreal after its disinfection treatment by ozonation (tertiairy waste water treatment).
- A study of the risk associated with the presence of the cytostatics (new pharmaceutical products/anti-cancer substances) in the St. Lawrence.
Community involvement and awareness
Under the St. Lawrence Action Plan, ECCC and Quebec’s Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Fight Against Climate Change are implementing the Community Interaction Program (CIP), which supports non-governmental organizations to pursue and implement projects that benefit the St. Lawrence ecosystem. In 2016–2017, ECCC funded 22 projects for a total of $556,000 in contributions. These were carried out throughout the program area. These projects involved key players from riverside communities, including municipalities, First Nations, academia, industry and agriculture, local communities, and relevant provincial and federal departments. Specifically, the projects funded in 2016–2017 were intended to restore priority sites with high bulrush marsh in the Montmagny region; to contribute to the recovery of the American eel through the evaluation of its habitat and the production of a feasibility study for the installation of fishways in the watersheds of the Ha! Ha! and Petit Saguenay, as well as the watersheds of the Portneuf and Jacques-Cartier Rivers; and to restore coastal habitats in the Matane region. In addition, 30 new project proposals were submitted to the CIP in 2016–2017 for activities beginning in 2017–2018.
The State of the St. Lawrence River Monitoring Program
A network of governmental and non-governmental collaborators continued to conduct sampling campaigns required to obtain scientific data through the State of the St. Lawrence River Monitoring Program. ECCC collected data on water levels and flow rates; the fluvial transport of contaminants; water quality; benthic communities in Lake Saint-Pierre and Northern Gannet populations. The interpretation of water quality, sediment contamination, land cover and benthic communities’ data was performed and fact sheets were written in 2016–2017. Those fact sheets will be released in 2017–2018.
The Working Group on the State of the St. Lawrence River organized the Rendez-vous Saint-Laurent 2016, which was held in Quebec City in October 2016. This event brought together experts and spokespersons from communities, non-governmental organizations, industry, academia, municipalities and governments. It was an opportunity for participants and collaborators to present the latest results from environmental indicators documented under the State of the St. Lawrence Monitoring Program and to explore possible options for improving the Program.
Enhanced use of precipitation observations in the St. Lawrence watershed
Precipitation and snow-on-ground observations are important inputs for the environmental prediction system along with hydrological forecasting. A number of federal, provincial and municipal agencies operate their own precipitation measurement programs and provide data from several sources: measurements made by observers, ground observations obtained with automated equipment, and remote sensing. This collaborative research project aims to compare the different sensors and methods used to measure solid precipitation. This involves taking measurements at an experimental site, the Montmorency Forest, which is located north of Quebec City and belongs to Laval University. In keeping with the scientific objectives, measurements are taken at the site in order to compare the solid precipitation data obtained manually and with various automated systems. Comparisons will be made with the protocols developed by ECCC and Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change. The measurements obtained in winter 2015–2016 serve as a baseline and will be used by the different research teams in the development of the numerical environmental prediction system.
Numerical Environmental Prediction Program
The Numerical Environmental Prediction Program for the St. Lawrence is a program to aid decision making and water management planning for the St. Lawrence and its watershed. It simulates the evolution of physical, biological or chemical processes in the St. Lawrence and its watershed to predict the state of the corresponding terrestrial and aquatic environment. The Program aims in particular to improve understanding of the St. Lawrence ecosystem as a whole and to provide a tool to support decisions about its integrated management. The Program is being carried out by a working group whose activities in 2016–2017 made significant progress, notably through four projects that dealt with the coupling of the hydrological models of the St. Lawrence watershed, the integration of hydrodynamic modelling tools into the Montreal archipelago, and hydrological and hydraulic modelling of the Richelieu River watershed. The group also supported various activities under the St. Lawrence Action Plan’s three main issues, which are conservation of biodiversity, sustainability of uses and water quality improvement.
6.4 Great Lakes Ecosystem Initiative
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) works in collaboration with the government of the United States, other Canadian federal departments, the Ontario provincial government, Indigenous Peoples and many other organizations, groups and individuals on water management, restoration and protection efforts in the Great Lakes.
ECCC leads and coordinates the implementation of the 2012 Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) and the 2014 Canada–Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health (COA). The GLWQA establishes broad, long-term objectives for Canada and the United States for restoring and protecting the Great Lakes, while the COA provides a short-term (five-year) plan for achieving Canada’s GLWQA commitments.
In 2016-2017, Canada and the U.S. released the first Progress Report of the Parties. The report documents the binational and domestic actions taken since the GLWQA took effect in February 2013.
Key actions completed for the reporting period include:
- Pursuant to the GLWQA, the Governments of Canada and the United States finalized a Nearshore Framework, which is a systematic, integrated and collective approach for assessing the nearshore health of the Great Lakes and identifying and communicating cumulative impacts and stresses. Through implementation of the Nearshore Framework, the Governments will provide the first comprehensive assessment of nearshore waters of the Great Lakes; share the information from the assessment; identify areas that would benefit from protection, restoration or prevention activities; and identify causes of impairment and threats. A pilot project was undertaken in 2016–2017 to test the nearshore framework approach in Lake Erie.
- The Governments of Canada and the U.S. completed development of the Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP) for Lake Superior. The LAMP provides an assessment of the state of the lake and priorities for action.
- To address the problem of toxic and nuisance algae in Lake Erie, a draft Canada-Ontario Action Plan for achieving phosphorus reductions from Canadian sources was prepared and released for public comment in March 2016. The draft Plan presented Canada and Ontario’s proposed actions in support of binational targets and commitments under the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, 2012 and the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, 2014, and invited Canadians to contribute their ideas and actions for inclusion in the Action Plan. The Canada-Ontario Action Plan will be finalized in 2018.
Areas of Concern
Areas of Concern (AOCs) are specific locations, such as harbours and embayments, where water quality and ecosystem health have been severely degraded by human activity at the local level. In 1987, Canada and the United States together designated 43 AOCs, 12 of which are in Canada, and 5 that are shared between Canada and the United States. In 2016–2017, coordination of Remedial Action Plan activities in Great Lakes AOCs continued, including assessing and reporting on the success of past actions and on the status of remaining actions. Some examples of these activities are noted below:
- The St. Lawrence River Institute for Environmental Studies continued the study to assess shoreline sediment mercury concentrations, which is expected to result in an updated contaminated sediment management plan for the river.
- The Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan completed an assessment of the incidence of fish tumours and other deformities and concluded that this beneficial use, which, up until now, was considered to require further assessment, is not impaired.
- A significant milestone was achieved in the Toronto Region AOC with the release of their report Within Reach: 2015 Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan Progress Report which highlights the progress that has been made over the past five years and identifies remedial Action Plan priorities for the next five years.
- In the Hamilton Harbour AOC a major milestone was achieved with the upgrading of the Skyway Waste Water Treatment Plant to tertiary treatment. Work continued on the Randle Reef Contaminated Sediment Remediation Project. This $138.9 million project is the largest contaminated sediment remediation project ever undertaken in a Canadian AOC, addressing 695,000 m3 of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contaminated sediments.
Science and monitoring
ECCC undertakes science and monitoring projects to support decision making in the Great Lakes AOCs in Canada and in binational AOCs.
In 2016–2017, a broad range of monitoring activities targeting water, sediment and aquatic biota, was undertaken. Science-related work included ongoing monitoring surveys on the Great Lakes, the review and update of Lake Management Plans and ongoing data collection to support Great Lakes environmental indicator reporting.
Monitoring was conducted on tributaries flowing to Lake Erie to assess tributary load targets, in-stream processes and to support the development of domestic action plans for achieving phosphorous reductions in Lake Erie. In addition, monitoring continued in the nearshore of East Basin Lake Erie to assess nearshore water quality and ecosystem health. Monitoring results demonstrated which waters have phosphorus concentrations at established targets and which areas may require further nutrient action or controls.
Research activities under the Great Lakes Nutrients Initiative included determining the relationship between human activity and nutrient concentrations, thereby better informing nutrient source identification and nutrient criteria development. In addition various beneficial management practice scenarios were simulated to assess the impact on nutrients, sediment and flow for the Grand River watershed.
Additional research efforts demonstrated that Cladophora, a species of algae that thrives in Great Lakes nearshore waters, can develop into nuisance blooms when exposed to elevated levels of phosphorus, especially in its dissolved form, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP). A high resolution model implemented for eastern Lake Erie described how dissolved phosphorus coming from land-based local sources and offshore waters drive Cladophora growth. Significant progress to date showed that the supply of phosphorus from the lake’s offshore waters can significantly contribute to localized nearshore Cladophora growth. Therefore, efforts to manage nearshore nuisance blooms in Lake Erie will also have to account for the offshore phosphorus supply.
6.5 Lake Simcoe/South-eastern Georgian Bay
In 2016–2017, the Government of Canada committed $1.77 million to 17 community-based projects through Lake Simcoe/South-eastern Georgian Bay Clean-Up Fund. These projects included activities to reduce phosphorus inputs to the watersheds from urban and rural point and non-point sources, restore and create aquatic habitat, and support innovation and advance research into the water quality issues of Lake Simcoe/South-eastern Georgian Bay.
Also in 2016–2017, multi-year studies on sediment characterization; nutrient source tracking; surface water quality and associated harmful algal blooms; and groundwater quality and its role in nutrient loading were completed. Research projects advanced understanding of the sources, transport and fate of phosphorus in the Nottawasaga River watershed, Nottawasaga Bay and Georgian Bay embayments. They contributed to an improved understanding of the factors influencing water levels in Georgian Bay and its embayments and provided new information on water quality in less studied waters in the south-eastern Georgian Bay geographic region. The research and monitoring has resulted in new management tools and information/data to support these tools. Stewardship programs targeting rural, shoreline, and agricultural landowners residing in high restoration priority locations were supported. These programs encouraged environment improvements that benefited the overall quality of the aquatic habitats and educated the community.
6.6 Lake Winnipeg Basin Initiative
The Lake Winnipeg Basin Initiative (LWBI) was the Government of Canada’s response to addressing water quality issues in Lake Winnipeg. The LWBI aimed to engage citizens, scientists, and domestic and international partners in actions to restore the ecological health of Lake Winnipeg, reduce nutrient pollution and improve water quality.
Phase II of the LWBI ($18 million, 2012–2017), which ended on March 31, 2017, increased focus on stakeholder stewardship actions that measurably reduced nutrient loading and improved Lake Winnipeg’s water quality.
Some key highlights from 2016–2017 include:
- The Lake Winnipeg Basin Stewardship Fund (LWBSF) provided financial support for 16 stewardship projects valued at $690,000; and 14 projects to reduce nutrient loading in the Lake Winnipeg Basin.
- The Lake Winnipeg Basin Office (LWBO) launched its webinar series on February 28, 2017 with a webinar presentation by Dr. Caren Binding, Water Science and Technology Directorate, ECCC titled “Remote sensing indicators for enhanced monitoring of algal bloom conditions on Lake Winnipeg”.
- The Reducing Phosphorus Loads to Lake Winnipeg indicator in the Nutrients in Lake Winnipeg Indicators report, first published in February 2016, was updated in August 2016.
- The Canada-Manitoba Memorandum of Understanding Respecting Lake Winnipeg and the Lake Winnipeg Basin (MOU) was extended to September 2020. The MOU facilitates a cooperative and coordinated approach in efforts to understand and protect the water quality and ecological health of Lake Winnipeg and its basin.
- Since its inception in 2008, the LWBSF provided over $6.7 million in federal funding for 88 stakeholder-driven projects ranging from wetland restoration to innovative waste-water treatment, and beneficial agricultural practices to cutting-edge scientific research. Every dollar provided by the fund generated approximately $2.63 in additional funds and in-kind contributions from collaborators. In total, stakeholder-driven projects valued at over $23 million have benefitted the Lake Winnipeg Basin.
Scientific projects in 2016–2017 focused on:
- addressing knowledge gaps related to the impacts of human activity (particularly land use) on nutrients in Lake Winnipeg tributaries
- undertaking water quality and biotic monitoring to track spatial and temporal flux of nutrients transported from the watershed to the lake.
- addressing critical knowledge gaps in lake nutrient dynamics relative to changes in nutrient loads to Lake Winnipeg.
- developing predictive models in support of nutrient management in the Lake Winnipeg Basin; and
- developing satellite earth observation tools for detecting and reporting on the extent and severity of algal blooms on Lake Winnipeg
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