February 1, 2003
January 17, 2003
The Honourable Minister Helen Johns
Minister of Agriculture and Food
1 Stone Road West, 3rd Floor South
Guelph, Ontario, N1G 4Y2
Re: Environmental Bill of Rights Registry Posting:
Proposed Stage 2 Draft Nutrient Management Regulations Under the Nutrient Management Act, Registry Number RC02E0002
Dear Minister Johns:
Please acknowledge the following as official comments on behalf of CARES (Citizens Actively Representing Environmental Security), Saugeen Shores, Bruce County, Ontario.
The primary goal of CARES is to create awareness in our community to the issues surrounding intensive livestock operations, that jeopardize the environmental as well as the social and economic fabric of our area. Our mission statement declares that: "We defend the right of our natural resources to exist, so that we may preserve: the beauty of the Saugeen River System where we canoe and kayak, our clean beaches that we swim and picnic at, the clean waters that we fish, the clean wells from which we drink, and the clean air in which we enjoy our sunsets."
CARES involvement in the Intensive Livestock issue spans these past four years since our formation in 1999. During this time, our members have continued to voice concerns to your ministry to no avail. Words cannot express our utter disappointment at the absence of positive change from this government to date.
It is clear that the Stage 2 Proposed Regulations have been designed to pave the way for the intensive livestock industry to gain easy access to rural lands in Ontario. Specifics in your proposal that lead to this assertion include:
to allow unlimited sized livestock operations (Section 1.8). What kind of safeguard for the public is this? This is a perfect example of OMAF’s inability to regulate themselves!
to ensure that no limits or "caps" are placed on the intensive livestock industry, provisions giving government the power to supersede local bylaws which do so were quietly passed just before Christmas 2002. The government dictates to municipalities that nobody can say "no" to livestock factories.
to allow unlimited sized livestock operations to build one-half metre above an aquifer (8.4a) and fifteen metres from a six metre deep well (Section 8.1lb). Where is the environmental risk assessment? This is a blatant contradiction to what is truly needed for our safety. Ontario Pork studies show approximately 30% of manure structures leak!
to allow 3,465 gallons/acres of raw liquid manure to be applied to tiled land without catch basins at tile outlets (6.4). What about the Upper Thames River Conservation Authorities findings in 1999? OMAF’s continuing support of field tile is creating direct access for liquid manure to reach our rivers and streams. It is the most common type of manure spill.
to allow expansions up to 20% without a requirement to update a Nutrient Management Plan (3.5). This sounds like a convenient loophole for the intensive livestock industry to expand without the "red tape" that should go with it.
to allow the use of antibiotics and growth hormones without provisions to treat the raw liquid manure produced (9.17). Nutrient management planning upon which OMAF believes our safety depends will not account for the mobility of pathogens nor their ultimate destination as was revealed during the Walkerton Inquiry. Ever heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
zero requirements to utilize new technologies on intensive livestock structures to control ammonia gas emissions for example emanating from ventilation systems (Section 9.20). The technology is available so force this industry to use it. Where are the scrubbers?
zero requirements for nutrient management plans to be made public. What are you hiding? Spreading plans (time of year/location) should not be a secret!
zero requirement to own any or part of the land base that is used for manure application (3.3). How absurd! Talk about setting things up for this industry! Many communities already require 50% land ownership and would like to see it higher. You have reduced it to zero %!
allow a Local Advisory Committee to be comprised of members of the intensive livestock industry whose role is to mediate (Section 12). This is an obvious OMAF solution to silence those who oppose a stinking sow factory for example, two football fields long, housing thousands of hogs, producing mega volumes of untreated waste to locate along a river across the road from where their family has lived for generations. It is more OMAF insurance that citizens will simply be unable to stop them.
OMAF continues to guarantee protection for the Intensive Livestock Industry under Bill 146 ensuring that environmental risk assessments will not be required of them. The impacts from this industry go far beyond mere "inconveniences" as stated in the Act. It is totally inappropriate for the intensive livestock industry to hide behind Bill 146. An amendment must be made that will exclude them.
The specifics discussed above, all prove that a conflict of interest does in fact reside in OMAF, as suggested by Mr. Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, in his July 2000 report on "Groundwater and Intensive Farming" (www.eco.on.ca). OMAF is obviously incapable of relinquishing control over to the Ministry of the Environment to develop this legislation as was recommended in Justice O’Connor’s findings at the Walkerton Inquiry.
Looking at a document prepared by OMAF staff, dated March 1997, entitled "The Rising Concern in Rural Ontario Regarding Swine Production", it comes as no surprise after all this time, that these regulations are what OMAF now proposes as solutions. The 1997 document shows that OMAF was certainly aware of the negative impacts that hog factories were causing in rural Ontario that long ago. Yet, instead of solving these problems, OMAF has tried to diffuse the negative backlash by dragging the entire legislative process out for six years while huge numbers of livestock factories are built. Now OMAF concludes by eliminating all local municipal authority to restrict this industry while further weakening other control mechanisms that should apply. Nutrients aren’t the only thing that smells.
Minister of the Environment, Chris Stockwell stated in a November 26/02 press release that: "Our government is committed to ensuring that Ontario has, and enforces, the best clean water policies in the world. We are committed to implementing all of Commissioner O’Connor’s recommendations." Wonderful! Why then has Minister Stockwell not fulfilled Justice O’Connor’s number one recommendation? Actions speak louder than words. Watershed source protection plans were to be established by Conservation Authorities for all regions in Ontario and then approved by the Ministry of the Environment. Thereafter, all local and provincial land use decision-making (ie; manure application, water taking) must not contravene those watershed source protection plans. Justice O’Connor gave a time frame of six to eight months to put watershed source protection in place. Just like OMAF, the MOE appears to want to drag out this crucial process too. What a crime!
Justice O’Connor’s report cited source protection as the first barrier of protection in a multi-barrier approach to protect drinking water. Minister Johns and Minister Stockwell, this rationale is really quite elementary. What is it that you don’t understand? How many more lives must be lost before your government acts on the advice of so many experts at the Walkerton Inquiry? Justice O’Connor recommended that the Ministry of the Environment be the lead agency to design and approve nutrient management plans for intensive livestock operations in order to protect water sources. Your proposed regulations ignore this warning.
Again, Justice O’Connor was clear that watershed protection plans should be in place FIRST before granting private water users (such as large hog factories) building permits to operate in rural Ontario. Christine Elwell, Senior Legal Analyst for the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, stated that: "The intent of this Act (Bill 81) is to delegate important governance functions directly to factory farms, bypassing the Ministry of the Environment and higher local standards contained in municipal by-laws that reflect local concerns and objectives." (June 28/02 Press Release).
Enacting these regulations under Bill 81 prior to establishing a functioning source protection framework in the province of Ontario is a recipe for disaster. A province-wide moratorium for the construction/expansion of new intensive livestock operations must be declared until Justice O’Connor’s first barrier of protection at the source is established.
A new intensive livestock operation came into production in Huron County every ten days on average between 1996-2000 (Owen Sound Sun Times, June 4/01). Evidence now shows that the Maitland River watershed flowing into Lake Huron near Goderich has the highest concentration of manure produced in Canada (Owen Sound Sun Times, June 4/01). Minister Johns, this is your home riding - you must be concerned! Can you not see the connection between too much liquid manure, systematically tiled land and polluted watersheds? Minister Stockwell, look at these variables - what are you doing about it?
Now the same disturbing pattern has begun in Bruce County, home of the Walkerton Tragedy. The Saugeen River watershed must not suffer the same fate as the Maitland. We as concerned citizens refuse to be walked upon by this government as you arrogantly attempt to achieve your vision of transforming our countryside into a patchwork of stinking hog factories and abandoned farmhouses.
Your ministries have failed to answer correspondence from many concerned citizens in Ontario. These voices of opposition to your government’s present actions will not be so easily muted.
OMAF has chosen to dismiss all voices of reason. Passing these regulations in the absence of source protection planning will make pollution legal for the intensive livestock industry.
Conservation organizations who have the expertise to assist in developing a source protection framework lobbied your government in November to take immediate action through Bill 195, the Safe Drinking Water Act. They too were ignored and the bill was passed.
It is expected that water quality will become a priority election issue in the province of Ontario. The Conservative government has failed to demonstrate genuine concern for the health and welfare of Ontario citizens. It’s time for a change.
CARES remains committed to "defending the rights of our natural resources to exist" in beautiful Bruce County.
Sincerely,
Kathy McCarrel, Spokesperson
Citizens Actively Representing Environmental Security
R.R. #1, Port Elgin, Ontario N0H 2C5
cc:
The Honourable Premier Eves
The Honourable Minister Chris Stockwell, Minister of Environment
Gordon Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
Dalton McGuinty, Ontario Liberal Party Leader
Howard Hampton, Ontario NDP Leader
Theresa McClenaghan, The Canadian Environmental Law Association
Elizabeth May, The Sierra Club of Canada