PRESS RELEASE

NS Drinking Water Improves; Rivers, Lakes, Coastal Waters Decline

Water provides $11.2 billion/year in benefits to Nova Scotia
GPI Study is First Full Water Quality Account in Canada

July 26, 2000, Halifax, Nova Scotia—More Nova Scotians have clean and healthy drinking water than they did 15 years ago, but the quality of the province’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters has declined, shows a ground-breaking new study to be released tomorrow (July 27) by GPI Atlantic. The province’s water resources provide a wealth of benefits to Nova Scotia worth more than $11 billion a year, including drinking and industrial water supply, recreation, waste treatment, food production, nutrient cycling, erosion control, and other vital ecosystem services.

The 230-page study marks the first ever assessment in Canada of the full value of a province’s water resources, and pulls together vast quantities of published and unpublished information from a wide range of federal, provincial and municipal sources (1). The GPI water quality study is the first in a series of natural resource accounts to be released in the coming months by GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group that is building the first Genuine Progress Index (GPI) in Canada as a measure of well-being and sustainable development.

According to report author, Sara Wilson, “the GDP and other market statistics send the wrong message to policy-makers and the public about the health of our environment, because they count the depletion of natural capital as economic gain. The more trees, water and fish we consume, the faster the economy grows. The more pollution we have and the more we spend on clean-up, the more the GDP will grow. By contrast, the GPI shows that our natural resources provide enormous value to society and the economy, and that we have to use them responsibly if we want to benefit the economy and future generations.”

The study found a 3.2 percentage point improvement from 1987 to 1998 in municipal water samples that were free from coliform bacteria; a 29% improvement in the percentage of Nova Scotia’s population with drinking water conforming to national health guidelines; and a 16.7% improvement in water complying with aesthetic objectives. Two municipal water supplies still have lead above the maximum acceptable concentration, and 3% of municipal water samples showed the presence of coliform bacteria that could cause health problems.

Still, more than one third of Nova Scotians don’t trust their drinking water and spend an estimated $265 a year per household on bottled water and water filtration systems, injecting $32.8 million a year into the provincial economy. "Here’s a case where less spending is better," says Wilson. “If everyone trusted their drinking water, people could save a lot of money.”

But while drinking water quality has actually improved, the province’s wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters are in decline, causing hidden damage to the economy, and threatening the well-being of future generations. Nova Scotia’s rivers have suffered more from acid rain than any other province, and only 20% of the province’s former salmon rivers still have healthy fish stocks. Atlantic salmon are extinct in 22% of NS rivers, 31% have only “remnant” populations, and another 25% have depleted stocks. In 1999, only 22 of Nova Scotia’s 72 salmon rivers were still open to recreational salmon angling.

Since 1985, the number of brook trout caught in the province has dropped by half, likely because of previous over-fishing, acid rain, and sedimentation of stream beds due to logging, agriculture and development. The GPI report estimated a loss to Nova Scotia of $22 million over 10 years due to the decline in recreational fishing. As well, the closing of the commercial salmon fishery has cost the federal government another $1 million to buy back licenses.

Along the coast, the number of shellfish closures, due mostly to bacteriological contamination, has more than doubled in the last 15 years, at an annual estimated cost of $8 million a year in lost revenues. In the last four years alone, the closed shellfish area has increased by 38%.

Metro lakes are faring no better, with nearly one-quarter “aging” rapidly due to high concentrations of phosphorus, nitrogen and other nutrients that come from fertilizer run-off, and from households, agriculture and forestry. Four metro lakes are already classified as “eutrophic,” meaning that nutrient levels are so high that dissolved oxygen levels have been significantly reduced, and another seven are “mesotrophic,” with intermediate levels of nutrients and oxygen. When oxygen is depleted, fish and other aquatic organisms die.

But the highest costs are the most hidden ones, with wetland loss due to development costing Nova Scotia an estimated $2.3 billion a year in lost ecological services. “Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world,” says Wilson. “They perform a host of incredibly valuable functions, including waste and nutrient cycling; protection against erosion, floods and storms; water purification; food production; and are one of the richest known wildlife habitats and an essential link in the food chain.”

“If we lose the benefits of natural, functioning ecosystems, not only do we lose habitat and species diversity, we also have to cope with the loss in ecosystem services by investing in expensive waste treatment and water purification plants, and engineering projects to control erosion and flood damage. Currently the loss of wetland services is invisible in our economic accounts, and we count the cost of expenditures to compensate for these lost services as a gain to the economy. This is bad accounting. We have to recognize, appreciate and value nature’s vital and irreplaceable life-support services.”

The GPI report notes that Nova Scotia has lost 62% of its saltwater wetlands and 17% of its freshwater wetlands since colonization, and it urges immediate conservation measures to prevent further loss.

The GPI report also estimates that Nova Scotia’s uncut forested watersheds provide $2,750 per hectare in services per year protecting water supply, – filtering and intercepting water, controlling run-off, and removing air pollutants. The estimate is based on what it would cost to replace those services with man-made water filtration plants and storm-water retention systems if the forests were clear-cut.

One “good news” piece in the GPI report is a significant reduction in contaminants in pulp and paper mill effluent as a result of federal government regulations implemented in 1992, with all five major Nova Scotia mills now averaging 99% compliance with federal standards. The GPI report recommends further regulation including lowering acceptable carbon dioxide levels below 100 mg/litre using aeration or pH adjustment, in order to reduce contaminants that still cause stress to fish.

The GPI study also details the value of Nova Scotia’s water resources for recreation ($150 million a year); investments needed for improvements in wastewater disposal ($532 million) and municipal water supply upgrades ($136 million); water pollution abatement and control expenditures ($180 million); contaminated well claims ($548,000 a year); and a range of other water resource values and pollution costs.

The GPI report has 15 recommendations to the province to protect and conserve the value of Nova Scotia’s water resources, including greater source control to reduce toxic discharges to harbours, rivers and lakes; investments in wetland restoration, watershed protection, sewage and water supply upgrades, and salmon habitat restoration; and the explicit recognition of water resource values and pollution costs in the province’s core economic accounts.

“At a time of budget cuts, we need to keep in mind the necessary investments to maintain our water resources,” says Wilson. “If water values are not protected, and if adequate investment in sewage treatment, pollution control and conservation are not made, then damage costs and water intake costs will definitely increase, and we’ll have to pay much more in the future.”

Wilson notes that, following earlier cuts, the provincial Department of Environment has had its 2000-2001 slashed by 16% to $13.1 million from $15.6 million the previous year, making essential inspection, monitoring and enforcement more difficult. The GPI report contains a section entitled “The Lessons of Walkerton,” detailing the costs of inadequate monitoring and enforcement of drinking water quality, and warning that “disinvestment in environmental protection produces major costs to society and the economy.”

The GPI Water Quality account is the first in a suite of GPI natural resource accounts to be released later this year, on which GPI Atlantic researchers have been working for more than two years. In the coming months, GPI Atlantic will release its greenhouse gas account for Nova Scotia; an ecological footprint analysis for the province; natural capital accounts for forests, fisheries, and soils and agriculture; an air quality component, and a full-cost accounting analysis of different modes of transportation in Nova Scotia.

GPI reports to date have focused on social components of the Genuine Progress Index, including the value of voluntary work, the value of unpaid household work, the cost of crime in Nova Scotia, and several population health indicators. Work is also currently proceeding on other social and economic indicators in the GPI.

(1) Databases and information in GPI Water study are from: Environment Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Statistics Canada, Health Canada, NS Department of Environment, NS Department of Natural Resources, NS Department of Transportation and Public Works, NS Department of Municipal Affairs, Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax Regional Water Commission, Soil and Conservation Society of Metro Halifax, North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and a variety of academic and independent research studies.