Policies, goals and objectives
3.2.4 Water
In 2012, Canada and the US amended the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), first signed in 1972, to build on previous commitments and to expand the agreement to new issues of mutual interest. The overall purpose of the GLWQA 2012 is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes. The GLWQA 2012 includes 10 annexes on issues that affect water quality: areas of concern, lakewide management, chemicals of mutual concern, nutrients, discharges from vessels, aquatic invasive species, habitats and species, groundwater, climate change impacts, and science (GLWQA 2012).
Broad changes to Canadian water policy since 2010
In Canada, federal, provincial, and municipal governments share water governance. The federal government is responsible for navigation, transboundary waters, and fisheries and fish habitat protection. The provinces have jurisdiction over most aspects of water quantity and quality, including the allocation of surface water and groundwater.
Canada’s first national standards on wastewater systems effluent, the culmination of collaboration between the federal and provincial/territorial governments, were put into place in 2012 (Canada 2012). At this time, numerous changes were made to federal legislation—the Fisheries Act, the Navigable Waters Protection Act (now the Navigation Protection Act) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA; now the CEAA 2012)—that have implications for water, arguably weakening certain aspects of the protection of freshwaters related to, for example, fish habitat, navigation, and the scope of federal environmental assessments (Gibson 2012; Olszynski 2015). However, following the 2015 election, the new federal government announced its intention to conduct a review of these legislative changes and restore lost protections, as well as to engage in a collaborative, inter- governmental approach on freshwater protection (Canada 2015). Although no specific changes to federal water policy or legislation can yet be attributed to these statements, they signal a renewed commitment to freshwater protection at the federal level.
At the provincial level, one key new piece of water legislation is the province of British Columbia’s Water Sustainability Act (British Columbia 2014) that provides for the ability to manage surface water and groundwater together, establishes water management rules during times of scarcity, and provides greater certainty with respect to water rights, although many of the details and implementation have yet to be finalized (British Columbia 2015a, b).
Broad changes to US water policy since 2010
Differences in US regional water policy stem from a relative abundance of water east of the 100th Meridian, and variable, but generally drier, conditions in the West. Challenges posed by water scarcity and, more recently, drought in the Southwest US, have caused federal and state agencies to initiate new regulatory efforts to mitigate the immediate effects on urban and agricultural communities. In addition, integrated water resources management (IWRM) and climate change adaptation planning have gained momentum since 2010, although implementation of the resulting plans continues to lag. Important large-scale IWRM planning efforts include the Colorado River Basin Plan and the Yakima Basin Water Plan (USBR 2012a, b).
While the general population in the US has good water security, the contamination of municipal water supplies (such as in Flint, Michigan) and the lack of water (such as in some California communities) have highlighted the potential fragility of the situation.
The Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act continue to be implemented and enforced across the US to protect and restore the biological, chemical, and physical integrity of the nation’s waters. There have not been any major changes in these underlying regulatory tools since 2010. The US EPA has identified nutrient pollution as the biggest water quality priority for the nation and progress continues to be made at the state level to reduce these nutrient loads (US EPA 2015f).
In 2015, the US EPA finalized the Clean Water Rule, which identifies waters of the US that are protected under the Clean Water Act. Previously, individual determinations
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