Selected Tools to Evaluate Water Monitoring Networks for Climate Change Adaptation

CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment) has published Selected Tools to Evaluate Water Monitoring Networks for Climate Change Adaptation.  This toolkit describes proven and practical ways for water managers and planners to set climate change adaptation priorities for water monitoring networks, and evaluate their ability to provide the data to support climate change adaptation needs.

Click here to get to the CCME's water site.

Click here to download the Tools PDF file (1.3MB).

Town of Olds wins FCM Sustainable Community Award

The Town of Olds has been recognized by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with a Community Sustainability award for its use of innovative wastewater treatment technology.

A summary from the FCM's website:

"The Town of Olds’ wastewater treatment plant was almost 30 years old and serving a population of 7,500 when trouble began — the facility was at capacity and posed an environmental hazard to receiving waters. Plans to upgrade and expand the plant were put on hold in 2006 when the Province announced plans for a regional wastewater system. The new system involved piping the town’s wastewater to Red Deer for treatment. This left the town with limited funding for upgrades and rendered its poorly functioning plant non-compliant with provincial regulations on effluent quantity and quality. The town needed a non-infrastructure solution to respond to ministerial requests to meet provincial regulations.

Guided by its sustainable community plan, the town decided to implement an innovative approach in which a bacterial treatment is injected into the wastewater pipes before wastewater reaches the treatment plant. The Canadian agent for the American-designed In-Pipe® treatment system managed the town’s conversion to this pre-treatment model, with no capital spending and no extra energy costs for the town. The initiative resulted in better-than-ever compliance with provincial requirements."

Click here to see a summary of the outcomes of the project (and for links to other FCM awards).

Click here to watch a video about the challenge faced by Olds and their award-winning solution.

Changing Currents: Water Sustainability and the Future of Canada's Natural Resource Sectors

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy has issued a new report examining the sustainable management of water in Canada, in the context of the development of our natural resources sectors.

From the NRTEE website:
"The world’s supply of freshwater is limited and finite. While Canada is blessed with an abundance of freshwater, an expected increase in the development of the natural resource sectors begs the question of whether our country has enough to support economic growth while also maintaining the health of our ecosystems. We need to know whether we are in a position to sustainably manage our water resources for future generations and if we have the capability to deal with issues like an anticipated change in precipitation patterns caused by climate change." 

Link to the report here.