Report: Canadian Rivers at Risk

Canadians have had their cherished belief in abundant fresh water shaken by a new report released by World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Canadians are reminded constantly that they have 20 percent of the world's fresh water, putting Canada among the top water-rich nations, only Brazil, Russia and China have more. But, a new report released by World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada) shatters this illusion of infinitely abundant fresh water for Canadians. The report, titled Canada's Rivers at Risk: Environmental Flows and Canada's Freshwater Future, puts the health of 10 major Canadian rivers under scrutiny, resulting in the revelation that expanding demands for fresh water by industry, agriculture and urban growth are drawing some rivers down to dangerously low levels. On their site, the WWF-Canada goes so far as to state, "some (rivers) are dangerously close to drying up." The report sees water as a dynamic resource, "constantly moving." It argues an examination of water flow establishes the true availability of fresh water. This approach puts more weight on the natural boundaries of a watershed rather than political boundaries, with the goal of calculating how much water is available for human use while still meeting wildlife needs. Climate change is making a multi-pronged attack on the health of Canada's major rivers. By altering precipitation patterns, increasing evaporation and melting glaciers, climate change is "altering the entire context of water management." The increasing demand for low-carbon energy to meet our growing energy needs is encouraging the construction of new hydro power projects. These have historically altered river flows and put river species and entire river ecosystems under stress. Rivers examined in the report are: Athabasca River, Fraser River, Grand River, Mackenzie River, Nipigon River, Ottawa River, Saint John River, St. Lawrence River, Skeena River and South Saskatchewan River. Each river is given an individual report card summarizing the health of river watershed and forecasting whether the river system is holding its own, improving or declining. The Saint John, the St. Lawrence and the South Saskatchewan rivers are all deemed to have "flows substantially altered" with key watershed species and the ecosystems under attack. The forecast is for these three rivers to continue in their decline. The Fraser River, healthy today, is also in decline. Famous for "producing more salmon than any other river on earth," the Fraser has seen sockeye returns drop to the lowest levels in 30 years. The fishing industry, worth more than $300 million annually, is threatened. As the value of the Fraser River to the economy of British Columbia is widely recognized, the report does offer hope that a combination of measures by both public and private interests will protect the river well into the future. An Ontario jewel, the Grand River, is called "a hard-working river." It is an important source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands, it supports a productive and diverse agricultural sector, it provides abundant recreational opportunities — fly fishing alone contributes more than $1 million to the local economy each year — and it is home to some 82 species of fish, representing about half of all fish species in Canada. Yet, the Grand's status is only fair with its future as murky as some of its waters. Increasing water demands, both urban and rural, pose daunting challenges to those working to secure adequate water flow throughout the watershed. A proposed pipeline to bring more water inland from Lake Erie would have unknown effects on the river ecosystem as water from beyond the watershed would be discharged into the Grand. One bright note was the Nipigon River in northern Ontario. Hydro-electric dams had decimated fish stocks. Modifications made by dam operators, working in unison, are bringing the water flow back to a state more closely resembling natural conditions The report makes a case for understanding "how threats interact with one another and possibly result in magnified impacts and unexpected consequences."