Water study to probe province's future needs
London Free Press
TORONTO -- Environment Canada has launched
a five-year study to determine if Great Lakes water supplies
meet the needs of Ontarians.
The study, which involves federal and provincial scientists
and managers, will determine the source of surface and
groundwater supplies in the Great Lakes basin and whether
environmental stresses such as climate changes will put
water supplies at risk.
Over the next decade, environment experts
expect increasingly tough choices to emerge between the
competing needs and uses of water.
Wendy Leger, federal co-ordinator of the study, said the
project is "an unprecedented effort" to determine water
sources and track them over time, with the goal of meeting
"Given that Canada per capita has 10 times more water
than the United States per capita and 20 times more than
Mexico, the reality of finite, and even scarce, water
resources is surprising, particularly to those who live
within the Great Lakes basin," Leger said in a release.
Andrew Piggott, a scientist with Environment Canada's
National Water Research Institute said: "Our large groundwater
resource varies greatly across the basin.
"This study will add significantly to the knowledge we'll
need to cope with the twin stresses of increasing demand
from population and industrial growth and drier conditions
predicted due to climate change," he said.
The study was launched to fill in information gaps highlighted
by recent reports by the International Joint Commission,
Ontario's environmental commissioner, the federal commissioner
of environment and sustainable development, and the Walkerton
inquiry into tainted water.
It aims to identify priority areas for water conservation
efforts, and aid federal, provincial and regional water
managers in coping with growing competition for water
supplies in the basin.