In this Issue
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Water Quality By Gary Bank In the past, water quality has not been a high priority item when federal-provincial accords have been implemented. This includes the "Save Our Soils" accord where the water quality impacts of soil saving techniques were incidental rather than carefully planned. This is in sharp contrast to what has taken place in the U.S. during the past decade. In 1982, the Resources Conservation Act was revised and water quality became its second highest priority. This act is implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and this agency proceeded to rewrite all technical information to reflect the impact of agricultural practices on water quality. To implement this new emphasis, Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been developed. These address pollution reduction in several major areas including nutrients, sediments, pesticides, organics, toxins (organics and metals), petroleum by-products and salts. A host of BMPs are applied to individual farms and both voluntary and mandatory compliance are carried out. This does not necessarily mean increased farming costs, but it does mean increased protection of both ground-and surface-waters. Applying this on the Canadian prairie would mean better on-farm drinking water supplies for both human and animal consumption. Combining this with better in-house treatment techniques can achieve the goal of safe and palatable drinking water. The new federal-provincial accord, the Green Plan, rates water quality and supply as two of its top three priorities and it is expected that past neglect of water and its role in agriculture will disappear. |
