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The Cornwall Standard Freeholder
By ERIKA GLASBERG
Forgotten landfills, poor sewage treatment, not enough trees being planted and saving the caribou are among the topics that can be found in this year’s annual report by Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller who believes the government is not keeping its environmental promises.
According to Miller, the government is failing to follow through on any of its environmental promises.
In an annual report released this week by Miller, a number of cases of an inactive government have led to the threatening of the environment which undermines stated environmental policies.
The Environmental Commissioner’s report found climate change to be one of many concerns today.
“Due to our latitude, global warming is occurring faster in Ontario than in the global average; while the average temperature around the world went up 0.75º Celsius in the past century, average temperatures in south-central Canada increased by an average of 1.2º Celsius.
Northern Ontario is experiencing even greater increases,” said Miller in an online blog which can be found at www.eco.on.ca/blog.
The deteriorating water quality can be blamed on the sewage treatments which are “not good enough” according to Miller.
Beaches were closed this summer due to E. coli levels being too high, making swimming unsafe.
Beaches in Ottawa were closed for the same reason; high levels of E. coli polluted the water.
“About 320 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of untreated sewage and storm-water had overflowed into the Ottawa River as a result of both heavy rainfall and periodic system malfunctions,” Miller said.
Miller Although raw sewage was only a small proportion of Ottawa’s outflow to the river, combined with an undetermined overflow quantity from Gatineau, it led to the beach closures, as well as other problems for residents and aquatic ecosystems”.
Local scientist don’t blame the government completely for the pollution in the water.
They suggested that a lot of the pollution is produced by sources that cannot be tracked down, making it hard to eliminate.
“We can point at the government but they do what they can with the tools that they have at hand,” said Jerome Marty, Aquatic Biologist and Research Scientist for the St. Lawrence Institute of Environmental Sciences.
“It requires local land owners and municipalities to participate in programs.
“It really comes down to participation in all different levels. If you’re going to do something, become aware of management practices.
“Learn what is in the chemicals you’re using and how you can insure they don’t run off your own property,” said Jeff Ridal, executive director and chief research scientist at the institute.
Marty agrees that more education is needed. “Everyone has to be involved to reduce the amount of bacteria and education is the first step,” Marty said.
An example of something that can be done is to eliminate phosphorus from dishwashing detergents.
“The Quebec government banned the use of phosphorus in detergent two years ago.
“I go to buy mine there now,” Marty said.
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