Canada’s water crisis ‘escalating’; Experts expect climate change to present serious water challenges, many already exist
April 23, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Source: Tar Sands Watch
“The problem is there are new threats coming down the line and we have all these ongoing issues that we haven’t dealt with,” said Tim Morris, national water campaigner for the Sierra Club of Canada, an environmental organization.
In Quebec, blue-green algae plagues lakes. St. Lawrence water levels were so low this fall that water had to be pumped in from Lake Ontario.
… Upstream, the Great Lakes Basin, the planet’s largest continuous body of fresh water, is surrounded by a huge population: 40 million people — one in three Canadians, one in 10 Americans. The lakes face growing demand from industry, power plants, farms and urban sprawl. Water levels are at historic lows in some Great Lakes.
… “Some experts say a temperature increase of two to four per cent could lower the average flow from Lake Ontario by 24 per cent,” because of higher rates of evaporation and drier soils reducing runoff, Environment Canada says. A decrease of that magnitude in Lake Ontario, the major source for the St. Lawrence, “could result in a one-metre drop in water levels in some areas of the” river.
Unusually low water levels — which can impair navigation, stimulate growth of noxious weeds and kill fish — would require more dredging of waterways, in turn harming organisms and spread contaminants.
In total, fresh water is estimated to contribute up to $23 billion annually to the Canadian economy, Environment Canada says.
Much, much, much more to this outstanding article at Tar Sands Watch >>
