Living sustainably within a watershed, or Pushing beyond natural limits?
| In 2007, the ECO undertook an examination of the challenge of creating sustainable communities in southern Ontario. The following articles are included: | |
|
|
Contents |
Sustainable water use cycles
One of the most profound examples of competing priorities has arisen in the areas of managing the growing demand for clean water and dealing with wastewater.
A community’s health and wellbeing are directly connected to its ability to access adequate supplies of safe, clean water and to effectively treat any wastewater generated. This, in turn, depends on putting in place the appropriate infrastructure. But infrastructure is only one of the water-related challenges facing communities in Southern Ontario; a community’s watershed must also contain adequate quantities of ground and surface water and the capacity to absorb and assimilate wastewater discharges in order to establish and maintain a sustainable water use cycle.
Sustainable water use on a community planning level is not a new idea. In 1992, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Agenda 21 initiative called for, “(R)econciliation of city development planning with the availability of water resources” and “(P)romotion at the national and local level of the elaboration of land-use plans that give due consideration to water resources development.” The notion of planning within the limits of a given ecosystem’s resources (or at least respecting ecosystem boundaries) is gaining ground – out of necessity – as more communities around the globe struggle with water and wastewater challenges. Inherent in this approach is the acknowledgement that there are ecosystem limits to growth. In part, this is why the governments of Ontario, Quebec and the eight U.S. states that border the Great Lakes felt compelled to sign the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement (GLSWRA) in December 2005. (For the ECO's review of the GLSWRA, see Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement.)
Ecologically sustainable water management
Some jurisdictions facing water scarcity are formally embracing ecologically sustainable water management (ESWM). This approach involves “…protecting the ecological integrity of affected ecosystems while meeting intergenerational human needs for water and sustaining the full array of other products and services provided by natural freshwater ecosystems.” ESWM requires adopting a holistic approach to water and wastewater services by considering a variety of ecological goals, including:
- natural flows for rivers, streams and creeks;
- protecting source water;
- addressing sources of pollution that threaten the health of aquatic ecosystems; and
- managing groundwater supplies with the understanding that they are inextricably linked to surface waters, wetlands and aquatic ecosystems.
It’s all about scale
State and provincial governments within the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) ecosystem have embraced at least one key element of ESWM: when they signed the GLSWRA, they imposed restrictions on water diversions outside of the GLB and from one Great Lake watershed to another. While progress is being made in relation to the Great Lakes Basin and the watersheds of the individual Great Lakes, this approach needs to be adapted to the needs of communities and their local watersheds. Ontario’s source water protection efforts, through the new Clean Water Act, do bring the focus down to the local watershed level, but emphasize only source protection. Thus, currently there is no concerted effort to establish sustainable water use cycles as an integral part of land use planning in Southern Ontario communities, a situation that is problematic given the population growth projections for regions such as the GGH.
Water/wastewater and the GGH Plan – Irreconcilable Priorities
The GGH Plan proposes urban growth and intensification in watersheds where communities are already struggling with water supply and wastewater treatment issues. These communities will eventually require major upgrades to their water and wastewater infrastructure to accommodate the projected population growth.
The GGH Plan’s policy on water and wastewater states clearly that “through sub-area assessment, the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, in consultation with municipalities and other stakeholders, will undertake an analysis of the implications of forecasted growth for water and wastewater servicing.” On a positive note, the GGH Plan does include two important requirements:
- before expanding existing water/wastewater systems or building new systems, municipalities should be implementing water conservation and demand management strategies; and
- municipalities in locations where inland water sources and/or receiving water bodies are shared, should co-ordinate their planning for potable water, stormwater, and wastewater systems to ensure the maintenance or improvement of water quality and quantity.
This are important factors to consider in community planning; however the guidance may ring hollow, because the GGH Plan does not require that population allocations be appropriately adjusted in communities where watersheds are close to carrying capacity. Instead, the GGH Plan favours the artificial extension of water and wastewater capacity in such communities, through major infrastructure projects designed to pipe water in from outside of the local watershed and, in some cases, to pipe wastewater back out. Long distance transport of water and wastewater also requires costly infrastructure and significant on-going energy supplies to run the pumps that move water and wastewater. In addition, such projects are exempt from the natural heritage protection provisions set out in the 2005 PPS, the Greenbelt Plan (GB Plan) and the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP), even though their construction will cause significant environmental impact.
Summary and ECO comment
The approach used in the GGH Plan reverses the sustainable planning process; it elevates the province’s goal of accommodating population increases – with economic growth as the central driver – over the need to live within ecosystem limits. The emphasis on large infrastructure projects sets up irreconcilable priorities. This approach is not sustainable over the long run, and may only serve to export the capacity challenges to more distant watersheds.
It is unclear whether the GGH Plan will allow for radical reductions in growth allocations if major shortcomings in water and wastewater servicing emerge in communities targeted for growth. The Plan does allow for population allocations to be revisited after five years, but does not indicate what factors were used to determine the existing allocations, or what factors might result in changing those allocations. It appears that accommodating economic growth by population expansion – rather than respecting ecosystem limits – has been the primary driving force in the allocation process. In the interim five-year period, municipalities are obligated to plan to accommodate the existing population projections outlined in the GGH Plan (see chart below). In effect, this obligation will impose large-scale infrastructure projects as the solution to inadequate water and wastewater capacity in designated urban growth areas.
The Grand River watershed: A tale of two municipalities
While the tension between population growth and water and wastewater management existed in many Southern Ontario communities before the development of the GGH Plan, these tensions are now heightened by the accelerating rate of population growth. The Grand River watershed provides an illustrative example.
The GGH Plan establishes five urban growth centres within the Grand River watershed: downtown Guelph, uptown Waterloo, downtown Kitchener, downtown Cambridge and downtown Brantford. As indicated below, the GGH Plan establishes growth projections for 2031 for Guelph and the Waterloo Region that are significantly higher than those that were developed by the municipalities.
Population projections to the year 2031
| Municipality | Municipal projection | ECO projections based on provincial and municipal forecasts |
|---|---|---|
| City of Guelph | 169,300 | 175,000-195,000 |
| Waterloo Region | 590,000 | 729,00 (GGH Growth Plan) |
All of these communities are dependent on groundwater and/or limited surface water supplies for their drinking water, and all must make use of the same limited surface waters to discharge treated wastewater. The five communities are already dealing with a restrictive environment in which it is extremely challenging to establish sustainable water cycles.
The City of Guelph
With a current population of 115,000, the City of Guelph is wholly dependent on groundwater for its municipal drinking water supply. The municipality currently is developing a Water Supply Master Plan in order to ensure adequate supplies to satisfy population growth projections over the next 50 years. As part of this planning process, an environmental assessment is underway that involves consideration of various alternatives for providing adequate water supplies into the future. These alternatives include:
- treating and optimizing existing groundwater sources;
- installing new groundwater wells within and/or outside of city limits;
- implementing aquifer storage recovery (treating surface water when available and storing it in groundwater aquifers for use as needed);
- accessing local surface water sources;
- pursuing a joint venture to access Lake Erie water via a pipeline; and
- limiting community growth as a method for reducing water supply needs.
The City’s Water Supply Master Plan acknowledges that provincial population growth projections for Guelph are greater than the projections in the municipality’s Official Plan; the City is planning for a 1.5 per cent annual increase in population to the year 2027, while the province is projecting a 2.5 per cent annual increase over that same period. The province’s faster growth scenario would mean that water supply infrastructure capacity will be exceeded approximately 15 years sooner than anticipated under the City’s more modest growth scenario. However, the City does acknowledge that reducing per capita water use would allow for more growth to occur within existing capacities. Providing additional capacity, according to the City, comes with “... increasing complexity and costs.” It also requires moving beyond the current supply situation, in which the City is able to provide all required municipal water through locally available groundwater supplies.
Moving beyond current capacities also presents another problem – managing increasing volumes of wastewater. The City has acknowledged that its existing wastewater treatment facilities will have to be expanded by the year 2011 to accommodate population growth to a maximum of 154,000 people – a maximum that represents the “… total capacity of the Speed River to assimilate the treated waste.” Meanwhile the ability of surrounding aquatic ecosystems to absorb the nutrients and other contaminants in wastewater is already close to capacity, introducing a need for contaminant and nutrient levels in wastewater to be reduced further, or for wastewater to be transported into other watersheds, as population levels increase over time.
The Region of Waterloo
With a population of 478,100 and growing, the Region of Waterloo relies largely on local groundwater sources to supply approximately 75 per cent of its municipal water needs, with the remaining 25 per cent drawn from the Grand River. The Region is currently updating its Water Supply Strategy; its Long Term Water Strategy, finalized in the year 2000, is already out-of-date as a result of the significant increase in regional population projections established through the GGH Plan. In early 2007, regional planners projected a much larger population, possibly exceeding 750,000 by 2041 as an inevitable consequence of GGH Plan implementation. Meanwhile, the provincial government is negotiating with Waterloo Region and Wellington County on how to establish new population forecasts for 2031 and beyond.
Much like Guelph, Waterloo is pursuing a program to improve existing sources of water, including optimizing the yield from its currently operating wells and assessing the potential for additional wells. The Region has already implemented aquifer storage recovery. In addition, it is seriously pursuing the idea of building a pipeline from Lake Erie, proposing that construction could start in 2029 and be completed by 2034.
Wastewater is already an issue in Waterloo, where 13 treatment plants discharge into the Grand River or its watershed. The stretch of the Grand River from Guelph to south of Waterloo Region must handle the overload of nutrients and other pollutants carried by treated wastewater discharges, as well as untreated sewage carried by sewer by-passes. In March 2007, some local municipal politicians expressed concern that the Region is “… growing too fast and we can’t manage it.” During the next 10 years, the regional municipality expects to spend an estimated $826 million for upgrades and expansions to its water and wastewater treatment services.
Summary and ECO comment
The province has established population projections for some communities subject to the GGH Plan, before assessing the related water and wastewater infrastructure needs, their associated costs and environmental impacts. This puts the cart before the horse.
The province’s approach fails to allow for the possibility that significant population growth may simply be inappropriate and ultimately unsustainable in some communities, because of ecosystem limitations. To artificially expand the carrying capacity of these communities – through the long-distance transport of water and wastewater – will certainly create systems more vulnerable to disruption and even less self-sufficient. In addition, it will greatly increase the challenges and complexity of protecting ecosystem integrity in the Great Lakes Basin and the GGH.
| This is an article from the 2006/07 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2007. "Irreconcilable Priorities: The Challenge of Creating Sustainable Communities in Southern Ontario." Reconciling our Priorities, ECO Annual Report, 2006-07. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 22-28.
