DECEMBER 2016 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
11
Government has farmers thinking about leaving Regulations, nitrates complicate life for local growers
by PETER MITHAM
SPALLUMCHEEN – While the troubles in the Hullcar Valley have thrust the Jansen family into the limelight, neighbouring farms have also been affected.
The province slapped pollution abatement orders on nine properties earlier this
year, expressing satisfaction, “on reasonable grounds that pollution is being caused by the introduction into the environment of agriculture waste.”
Many say the move
violated provincial protocols, and tarred all farmers with the same brush.
Three recipients of the An aquifer of mistrust A lack of
communication has created a climate of
mistrust among residents of the Hullcar Valley, says Al Price of the Save Hullcar Aquifer Team (SHAT).
“Communication has been a
local water quality
information was only disclosed at the order of
AL PRICE
major issue, for sure,” he told Country Life in BC during a recent tour of the valley. “For most of us, that translates to fear.” The breakdown in communication began when the Interior Health Authority issued a drinking water advisory solely to households with registered septic systems. “[It] should have
published a notice in the local papers to reach those whose septic systems and wells were not registered,” he says.
The local Splatsin First Nation weren’t alerted to the issue, either. Band members didn’t find out until late 2015, Price says. The fact that complete
B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner earlier this year also troubles him.
Price believes only full
disclosure of practices at the Jansen farm will help clear the air regarding the effects the farm – the largest addition to the valley in the past decade – is having on the Hullcar aquifer.
Price hopes to form a coalition of like-minded groups, one that brings together those facing water quality issues from the Nicola Valley, where biosolids have been an issue, to Shawnigan Lake, where domestic sewage is an issue.
“We all seem to be fighting the same sort of battle, where the
government doesn’t really care what happens to our drinking water,” Price says.
orders challenged the government; one had the order rescinded.
Ted Curtis, who operates a feedlot west of the Jansen property, launched his own challenge, arguing that the orders treat everyone as offenders rather than seek to determine guilt.
“We were blindsided by the abatement order as the Ministry of Environment has never indicated that Curtis Farms was doing anything to harm the environment,” Curtis wrote in a letter to B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak provided to Country Life in BC and other media outlets. (Curtis didn’t answer a request for an interview.) “The Ministry of Environment either cannot or will not identify the source of the nitrates and have decided to blame everyone who farms over the Hullcar aquifer.”
Curtis noted that his family has farmed in the Hullcar Valley since 1974, and takes its commitment to sustainable farming practices very seriously.
“We avoid over-fertilizing and over-irrigating, and minimize runoff from the feedlot pens and fields,” he wrote, noting that nitrate levels in the three wells on the farm consistently test below 0.010 parts per million (ppm). Government’s handling of the issue has prompted Curtis to consider leaving,
something he says he doesn’t want to do.
“We moved here to farm and had no intention or desire to sell off sections of the farm or develop it,” he said. “However, if our ability to farm is compromised, we might have to look at our options.”
Shelley Baumborough, who with partner David Doran operates Deerfoot Farm on Hullcar Road, is also considering her options. Deerfoot sits north of the aquifer and didn’t receive an abatement order, however, Baumborough feels her proximity to the Jansen operation exposes her to undue risk.
Deerfoot holds Certified Naturally Grown certification and farms as close to organically as possible. Rising nitrate levels in the water her
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poultry drink and which irrigate her market garden isn’t something she wants to see, arguing these could pose a risk to both the livestock and consumers.
Tests at the farm have typically found nitrate levels below 2 PPM, but
Baumborough said it’s tough to know how the application of so much effluent will affect the environment.
“If our nitrate levels rise, we’re not going to be able to raise healthy poultry on our farm,” she said.
A lifelong resident of the North Okanagan, she feels compelled to relocate to another part of the region. “It just creates fear when you don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “I want to stay around, I just don’t want to be in that valley anymore.”
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