Macphail Woods Articles
Just what will it take to make our government take action

Just what will it take to make our government take action by Gary Schneider

With all the public attention and education over the past two decades on environmental issues, real progress has been made in many areas. Pulp mills actually have to put scrubbers on their smoke stacks. Forestry companies are no longer quite as free to pillage thousands of acres at a time. Toxic industrial chemicals are less likely to wind up being dumped in our rivers. Yet with all this progress, some of the Island s potato producers seem to be intent on going in the opposite direction.

In the 1980's, it would be a leaking barrel of Temik polluting groundwater, or a spray plane that crashed. The acreage was half of what it is today and most people used at least some rotation. In the mid- 1990 s, we started to see the annual fish kills up west, usually at Profit s Pond. These were seen as isolated incidents, some crazy combination of geography and climate. Over the past two years we have seen 20 observable fish kills, most of these a direct result of pesticide use on potato fields. I say "observable" since it is very clear that many more fish and stream invertebrates are dying, many more rivers are being poisoned. We are only seeing the largest events, when the rainwater doesn t wash the dead fish out of sight, or when there are actually enough fish in the river to begin with.

The warning bells have been ringing for years and no one wants to answer the phone. A recent Guardian article reported 7 pesticides present in the Indian River at the time of the fish kill. Rates of two of these were over the LC5O levels, the dosage required to kill half the fish population. That should be scary enough, but it is compounded by two other facts: first, the LC5O rates are based on individual chemicals and we have no real idea what the LC5O rates should be when you mix other chemicals into the soup; second, the testing was done 24-30 hours after the rains fell, so we can be sure the pesticide levels were actually a great deal higher.

So what will it take to bring about change? The "isolated" incidents, such as spillages and tanks tipping over weren t enough. The "regular" fish kills in Profit s Pond didn t seem to make many waves, in fact the province chose to ignore most of the recommendations of the Round Table on Land Resource Use and Stewardship. Last year's fish kills were blamed on strange weather patterns and simply sparked the government to create a Fish Kill Committee, which proposed little action at all. And in this millenial year? What will our reaction be to the continuing demise of Island waterways and our reputation around the world?

If ten fish kills a year aren t enough, just what will it take to make changes? Do we need twenty? Or fifty? Do the tourist operators and shellfish growers have to rise up in revolt to protect their industries? Do we need groundwater contamination that will make this summer's biol orders look like a walk in the park, since you can't boil away pesticides? Do Islanders need to stand up and say enough is enough, that our priority has to be clean water and healthy waterways?

For the many Island potato growers who are doing an excellent job in reducing chemical inputs and protecting waterways, you should be recognized for being leaders in your field. But the question still remains, one for which i do not have an answer - just how much destruction must occur before we see real change?

Round Table on Resource Land Use and Stewardship

The report of the Round Table on Resource Land Use and Stewardship was released to the public on September 3, 1997. Web development and maintenance by Chris Martin.