RBC Blue Water Project: $2.3 Million in Funding Announced

via PR Newswire:  2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants announced

June 14, 2013

RBC awards $2.3 million in funding to protect water in cities and towns around the globe

TORONTO-RBC today announced the recipients of the 2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants, totalling more than $2.3 million in funding for water protection and preservation programs. Awarded on the fourth annual RBC Blue Water Day, the grants support 123 organizations spanning seven countries, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos Islands.

“Water is the lifeblood of our planet and vital for our social and economic wellbeing,” said Gord Nixon, president and CEO, RBC. “Since the RBC Blue Water Project was established in 2007, we have committed more than $38 million in grants to some 650 organizations around the world working to protect our most precious natural resource, including the grants we’re announcing today. We are honoured to support the important efforts of this year’s grant recipients, whose projects reflect our new focus on urban water issues.”

In December 2012, the RBC Blue Water Project announced a shift in focus to address a significant, emerging issue that is relevant to the majority of RBC employees and clients – protecting and preserving water in towns, cities and urbanized areas. The 2013-2014 Leadership and Community Action Grants are funding programs that improve urban water quality and efficient use, enhance storm water management and protect and restore urban waterways.

“By 2050, three quarters of the world’s population will live in cities,” explained Alexandra Cousteau, RBC Blue Water Project Ambassador and National Geographic Emerging Explorer. “With more people, our urban water resources will become even more strained than they are today. The 2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grant recipients are working to solve some of the most critical water issues facing our growing communities and helping to ensure we have the clean water we need for the future.”

CNW: 2013 Recipients of Excellence in Water Stewardship Award

Via: Canada Newswire, March 22, 2013

Council of the Federation Announces First-ever Recipients of Excellence in Water Stewardship Award

OTTAWA, March 22, 2013 /CNW/ – On the occasion of World Water Day, the Council of the Federation (COF) announced today the recipients of the Excellence in Water Stewardship Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement, innovative practice and leadership in the area of water stewardship. This award is presented to organizations, partnerships, businesses, institutions, and community groups in each province and territory across Canada.

Stemming from the Water Charter, adopted by Premiers in August 2010, Premiers have established this new award in recognition that water is critical to human and ecosystem health. A sustainable water supply ensures our communities are liveable and economically viable whether they are large urban centres or remote or rural communities.

“On behalf of all Premiers, I want to congratulate the first-ever recipients of the Council of the Federation Excellence in Water Stewardship Award,” said Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, Chair of the Council of the Federation. “These awards are an important mechanism for change as they bring deserved recognition to the champions of water stewardship and inspire all Canadians to take action.”

The recipients of the 2013 Council of the Federation Excellence in Water Stewardship Award are:

Alberta Urban Municipalities Association – Alberta
Okanagan Water Stewardship Council – British Columbia
Lake Winnipeg Foundation – Manitoba
City of Moncton Automated Water Meter Reading Project – New Brunswick
Atlantic Coastal Action Plan (ACAP) Humber Arm – Newfoundland and Labrador
Sambaa K’e Dene Band – Northwest Territories
Clean Annapolis River Project – Nova Scotia
Centre for Water Resources Studies – Nunavut
City of Kitchener Impervious-area Based Stormwater Utility and Credit Policy – Ontario
Winter River-Tracadie Bay Watershed Association – Prince Edward Island
Regroupement pour la protection du Grand lac Saint-François – Québec
Lower Souris Watershed Committee Inc. – Saskatchewan
Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council – Yukon

Each recipient receives a glass award, a monetary prize and a certificate signed by the Premier of their province or territory.

Further information about the Excellence in Water Stewardship Awards can be found at http://www.councilofthefederation.ca.

ESTJ: Land and Water Impacts of Oil Sands Production in Alberta

Land and Water Impacts of Oil Sands Production in Alberta

Sarah M. Jordaan
Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, United States IN Environ. Sci. Technol., 2012, 46 (7), pp 3611–3617
Publication Date (Web): February 24, 2012

Abstract

Expansion of oil sands development results not only in the release of greenhouse gas emissions, but also impacts land and water resources. Though less discussed internationally due to to their inherently local nature, land and water impacts can be severe. Research in key areas is needed to manage oil sands operations effectively; including improved monitoring of ground and surface water quality. The resulting information gap means that such impacts are not well understood. Improved analyses of oil sands products are required that compare land and water use with other transportation fuel pathways and use a regional perspective so local effects can be considered and mitigated.

Land and Water Impacts of Oil Sands Technologies

1 How Different Are the Impacts of Oil Sands Extraction Technologies?

Bitumen is extracted from the oil sands using two technologies, surface mining or in situ recovery, each of which have different land and water impacts. Surface mining techniques remove shallow depth oil sand deposits by truck and shovel and extract the bitumen with the Clarke hot water extraction process by mixing the oil sand with water warmed using natural gas.(11) In situ technology is predominantly used for extracting deeper deposits. Thermal in situ technologies use natural gas to produce steam that is subsequently injected to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen so that it can be pumped to the surface using production wells. It is understood that oil sands technologies produce 10–20% more greenhouse gases than the average conventional fuel when calculating life cycle emissions from well to wheel,(4) yet much less emphasis has been placed on quantifying water and land impacts.

Land use of surface mining is comprised largely of polygonal features (mine sites, overburden storage, tailing ponds, and end pit lakes). In situ development has a different footprint, mostly defined by linear features that extend across the lease area (networks of seismic lines, access roads, pipelines and well sites).(12, 14)As of 2009, only 600 km² of land were disturbed by surface mining, accounting for 0.3% of the area where oil sands resources are present, or less than 0.1% of the total land area of Alberta. Eighty percent of the resource is currently expected to be extracted using in situ technologies, affecting approximately 136 000 km² (97% of the total oil sands area).(13) While natural gas is used in surface mining, in situ recovery can use on the order of four times more than surface mining.(11) The cumulative footprint of the future oil sands operations may extend over approximately the 140 000 km² during the course of the development, comprising of 20% of Alberta, and even more if the upstream footprint from the infrastructure required for natural gas production is included.(14)

Postmedia News: Alberta harvest first crop of waste-raised willows

EDMONTON — After flourishing on waste water from the town’s sewage treatment plant for more than two years, Whitecourt’s biomass crop of willows and poplars was ripe for harvest.

And last week, researchers brought in three different machines to cut, chip or bundle the various varieties of the fast-growing wood.

While trees aren’t usually on the list when farmers decide what crops they will plant, these species are being tested as both fuel and a way to naturally dispose of treated waste water and sludge.

Whitecourt offered the seven-hectare site beside its treatment plant to researchers in 2006, along with an electricity hookup and an unlimited supply of waste water to irrigate the young trees with underground pipes.

“The cut last week was our second on that site. The irrigated trees were 30-per-cent larger than the ones that weren’t irrigated, and we think they will be a good fuel source for our wood-burning power plant,” says Peter Yackulik, the town’s project manager.

“The question to be answered is what will it take to commercialize this operation in the future.”

The project is part of a federally led research program, with Alberta leading the way.

Whitecourt was the first test site in Canada, and there are now five locations in the province, says Richard Krygier, a researcher with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Wood Fibre Centre.

Saskatchewan is also interested, and Krygier hopes what has started here will eventually be copied across the country.

The other municipalities taking part with Whitecourt — Edmonton, Camrose County, Grande Prairie and Beaverlodge — met recently with government and industry supporters to form the Alberta Rural Organic Waste to Energy Network (AROWEN) to exchange ideas and encourage others to consider their approach.

“There are now 24 municipalities, companies or government departments working on this project,” says Krygier, listing an irrigation firm, a nursery company and a laboratory.

The research may provide an alternative way to treat waste water. Most areas with fewer than 5,000 residents still use lagoons and primary treatment systems, which eventually discharge into streams and rivers.

Larger centres with state-of-the-art sewage systems, such as Whitecourt and Edmonton, still have to dispose of the leftover sludge.

Researchers are studying the effects of applying this material to fields of willow trees, where it breaks down and acts as a natural fertilizer.

Edmonton’s project involves using sludge with trees on a test plot near the new remand centre being built on the city’s northern outskirts.

These trees produce biomass that can be burned for heating or to generate electricity, or in the future could be used in bio-products such as chemicals and drugs.

At the Whitecourt site, Krygier says five varieties of willow and two types of poplar were planted on irrigated and non-irrigated land.

The waste water is the same highly treated effluent discharged into the river, so it really can’t be considered sewage.

“This was our first project and we weren’t prepared to work with something that was a little ‘fresher’,” Krygier said, referring to sewage treated only to the primary level.

Using soil moisture sensors, irrigation occurred when the young trees were so dry they needed extra water.

Irrigation only works during the growing season, so a town relying on willow fields would need a winter waste water storage site, such as an engineered wetland, Krygier says.

Harvesting was done with a Claas unit, which did a good job quickly chipping the stalks, a baling machine and a cane cutter pulled behind a tractor.

It’s a new application for equipment many Alberta farmers are already accustomed to using. Farmers also have plenty of experience handling chipped material (silage for dairy cows) and round bales of hay and straw.

“But you are talking $35,000 for the cutter, $140,000 for the round bailer and $160,000 for the Claas head unit, so we were demonstrating different equipment scales of harvesting.”

The willow and poplar chips are being dried in the yard of Edmonton’s Northern Forestry Centre, testing a new technique adopted from Ireland — pumping air through slotted pipes under the pile — that has been modified by a local grain-drying firm.

“In Ireland they could dry wood chips with 45 to 50 per cent moisture content, which is what they are right now in winter, down to 18 to 20 per cent in four months,” Krygier says.

The chips will be studied and graded at a national forestry research lab to determine their quality.

Other countries, such as Sweden, have plantations of fast-growing trees harvested every few years just like crops. If it makes economic sense, large areas of brush land, marginal farmland and even the land under power lines could support willow crops in Alberta.

dcooper@edmontonjournal.com+

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Related:

Using wastewater to irrigate short rotation crops delivers dual dividend (Logging and Sawmill Journal, Nov 2011)

For more information about this method, contact Martin Blank at (780) 435-7309 or Martin.Blank@nrcan.gc.ca, Richard Krygier at (780) 435-7286 or rkrygier@nrcan.gc.ca, or Derek Sidders at (780) 435-7355 or dsidders@nrcan.gc.ca

TorStar: Ontario only province to get an ‘A’ for drinking water: Ecojustice report

via: Toronto Star Published Nov 15 2011
Colin Perkel for The Canadian Press

TORONTO—More than a decade after the Walkerton disaster, much of Canada’s tap water remains at risk from contamination despite initial progress in front-line monitoring and treatment, a new report concludes.

In its third such report released Tuesday, the environmental group Ecojustice warns that while some jurisdictions have stepped up water protection efforts in the past five years, most have not done enough.

In 2000, seven people died and 2,500 fell ill in Walkerton, Ont., when the town’s poorly monitored drinking water was contaminated with E. coli from farm runoff.

The tragedy prompted most provinces to review and revamp their drinking water laws with mixed results — but that burst of enthusiasm has faded in recent years, according to the report.

“In many places, the health of Canadians is still at risk,” the report concludes.

“The lack of recent progress also seems to indicate that the impetus for improved water protection, spurred by events like Walkerton, is on the wane.”

The report called “Waterproof 3” finds only Ontario among the provinces worthy of an A grade for its water protection efforts, while Alberta lags with a C-.

The federal government gets an F for a record that continues to worsen, the report states.

In particular, the report criticizes Ottawa for a lack of progress on the legislative front, poor water quality for First Nations, and budget cuts it says will hurt Environment Canada’s ability to monitor the situation.

“The federal government is failing in almost every aspect of water protection, even though it should be setting rigorous standards,” the report says.

For the first time, the report has expanded to include source-water protection efforts — the idea that the best way to provide safe tap water is to ensure the water does not get contaminated in the first place.

The findings are not encouraging.

“Full-fledged source-water protection — a critical first step in achieving safe drinking water systems — has been implemented to some degree in only seven of 13 provinces and territories,” the report states.

“(It) is notably lacking in industry-heavy areas where the risk of contamination is high.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more

For more information, please contact:

Kimberly Shearon, communications coordinator | Ecojustice
604.685.5618 x 242 | 778.988.1530
kshearon@ecojustice.ca

Sutton Eaves, communications director | Ecojustice
778.829.3265
seaves@ecojustice.ca

POLIS Project: A Blueprint for Reinventing Rainwater Management in Canada’s Communities

Via: POLIS Project on Ecological Governance – Water Sustainability Project (WSP)

Most of Canada’s communities manage stormwater runoff in a way that is not sustainable in the long term. Flooded streets and basements, degraded urban streams, increasing impacts of a changing climate, and expensive drainage infrastructure that demands constant maintenance are all evidence that we must learn to better integrate the water cycle into urban areas.

Peeling Back the Pavement: A Blueprint for Reinventing Rainwater Management in Canada’s Communities is the latest in POLIS’ water sustainability handbook series for decision makers, community leaders, and municipal water management staff.

Rethinking the way we deal with rain and snowmelt in our cities means replacing conventional pipe-and-convey systems with an approach that recognizes rainwater as a valuable resource while, at the same time, reducing runoff volume and improving runoff quality. Peeling Back the Pavement outlines the problems with conventional stormwater management and examines solutions for moving toward sustainability.

It provides a comprehensive blueprint that outlines the crucial steps necessary to change the way communities manage and, importantly, govern stormwater. The blueprint describes detailed actions that local and senior levels of government can take to move from the current system of stormwater management to one focused on rainwater as a resource.

The handbook is alive with examples and case studies demonstrating leading practice and on-the-ground results from across Canada and beyond. A main focus is addressing the fragmented responsibility for fresh water across and within jurisdictions—one of the greatest challenges to reinventing rainwater management.

Report (high res for printing – 8 MB)

Report (low res for online viewing – 4.5 MB)

Author(s): Susanne Porter-Bopp, Oliver M. Brandes & Calvin Sandborn with Laura Brandes

See also:

Canada Water Network / Reseau Canadien de l’eau – WEBINAR: Creating a Blue Dialogue — POLIS Water Sustainability Project
http://www.cwn-rce.ca/news-and-events/webinar-creating-a-blue-dialogue-polis-water-sustain-project/

Shared Water, One Framework: What Canada Can Learn from EU Water Governance
http://poliswaterproject.org/story/421

University of Waterloo – Water Institute, Events page http://water.uwaterloo.ca/news_events.aspx

Calgary Herald: Water policy a priority for Alberta’s new environment minister

Alberta’s new Environment and Water minister says long-awaited public discussions on a system for divvying up southern Alberta’s scarce water resources will be coming in 2012.

The newly appointed Diana McQueen, MLA for Drayton Valley-Calmar, said public consultations on water – and southern Alberta’s current market for buying and selling limited water licences – is one of the top priorities in the new portfolio.

In an interview, McQueen said she wants the consultations to lead to improvements to what she describes as an already solid system that feeds agriculture, cities, towns and industry in the most populated region of the province.

“We’ve got a system that’s worked very well over the last 100 years,” McQueen said. “We want to make sure we are not throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

McQueen said her department would release some educational documents on water next year to prompt discussion on water – but already the province’s new premier has waded into the issue.

At a leader’s dinner in Medicine Hat earlier this month, Alison Redford suggested she doesn’t like the idea of going further down the path of putting a price on water, saying “it’s not the way I think we should go.”

However, Redford added she wants an open conversation on the issue where Albertans make the decision as to how to proceed.

Those with an interest in Alberta’s water supplies have long been waiting for some kind of clarity. It was more than three years ago when long-serving former environment minister Rob Renner said that public consultations on re-vamping the province’s water allocation system would go ahead with 18 months.

“Water policy has been stalled for the last several years,” said Bob Sandford, an Alberta water expert and author who chairs Canada’s participation in the United Nations Water for Life Decade.

“We’re not the water policy leaders that we think we are.”

Water issues are especially charged in southern Alberta, where almost every river, lake and stream has been closed to new water licence requests since 2006. Since new licences are no longer readily available from the government, a market has sprung up with 60 licences bought and sold in the last five years.

The issue is intensified by debate over Alberta’s century-old “first-in-time, first-in-right” water system, which gives the oldest water licence holders first dibs on supplies. Some of the oldest and most senior licence holders — and therefore those who wield the most water power — are irrigation districts for southern Alberta farmers, and the city of Calgary.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Water+policy+priority+Alberta+environment+minister/5631079/story.html#ixzz1cTfFNqLy

FLOW Speaking Tour Underway Urging Policy Makers to Embrace Water Protection

WATERLOO – Wilfrid Laurier University is hosting  The Forum for Leadership on Water  (FLOW)’s “Northern Voices, Southern Choices: Water Policy Lessons for Canada” cross-country tour on October 25, 2011. During the event, Bob Sandford, a leading water expert, will discuss the need for significant water policy reform.

“The days when Canadians take an abundance of fresh water for granted are numbered,” warns Sandford, who is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations “Water for Life” Decade.

“Increasing average temperatures, climate change impacts on weather patterns and extensive changes in land use are causing incalculable damage to public infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, and seriously impacting water quantity and quality.”

Sandford emphasizes that floods and water damage caused by climate change will cost governments billions of dollars and threaten economic growth unless significant water policy reform is adopted.

“Governments need a Canada-wide strategy that effectively addresses current and emerging threats to freshwater security,” said Sandford. “We have seen what elements of such a strategy could look like thanks to leadership from the Northwest Territories, but other jurisdictions have to act now.”

FLOW is a national collaborative of water experts that encourages government action to protect critical fresh water resources. The group’s cross-Canada tour, which began in early October and runs to the end of November, aims to demonstrate the need to better prepare for climate change, increase civic engagement and think more strategically about water management.

Deb MacLatchy, Laurier’s vice-president: academic and provost and an aquatic toxicologist, will open the Oct. 25 forum. The panel also includes Stephen Kakfwi, former Northwest Territories premier; David Livingstone, former director, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada; and Chris Burn, NSERC Northern Research Chair, Carleton University.

Laurier and the government of the Northwest Territories signed a 10-year partnership agreement in May, 2010 to collaborate on research and training on climate change and water resource protection. The partnership supports the goals of the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy to ensure that the water of the NWT “remains clean, abundant and productive for all time.”

Laurier hosts the Institute for Water Science and Cold Regions Research Centre – multi- disciplinary research institutes that focus on cold regions and water science research, including public policy and management.

The event takes place Thursday, Oct. 25 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Paul Martin Centre on Laurier’s Waterloo campus. FLOW’s tour is primarily funded by the RBC Blue Water Project.

Tour Cities and Dates

Robert W. Sandford, EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of United Nations “Water for Life” Decade, will be speaking at the following places:

• Regina, Saskatchewan, Thursday, October 6, 2011
• Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Friday, October 7
• Halifax, Nova Scotia, Thursday, October 13
• Sydney, Nova Scotia, Friday, October 14. RSVP
• Winnipeg, Manitoba, Monday, October 17
• Toronto, Ontario – Monday, October 24, 2011. RSVP
• Waterloo, Ontario – Tuesday, October 25, 2011
• Montreal, Quebec – Wednesday, October 26 RSVP
• Quebec City, Quebec – Friday, October 28
• Nelson, British Columbia – Friday, November 4
• Vancouver, British Columbia – Tuesday, November 8
• Victoria, British Columbia – Wednesday, November 9
• Edmonton, Alberta – Monday, November 21
• Calgary, Alberta – Tuesday, Nobember 22
• Ottawa, ON – TBA

Information about the tour dates will be listed as it becomes available.

Generic or specific questions about the tour can be directed to Nancy Goucher.

CNW: 2011 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership Grants announced

30 organizations worldwide to share $4 million in funding

TORONTO, Sept. 30, 2011 /CNW/ – RBC today announced its 2011 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership Grant recipients. Thirty organizations, delivering projects in five countries, will share more than $4 million for programs that help protect watersheds and improve access to clean drinking water.

RBC’s 2011 funding will support a range of projects from wetland and shoreline restoration to water quality monitoring and sharing of sustainable water management practices in agricultural regions. More than 180 organizations applied for 2011 Leadership Grants.

“This is our fourth year of evaluating grant proposals, and our panel has never been more impressed with the quality of applications. We really are seeing the best of the world’s best organizations working to protect water,” said Rob de Loë, professor and University Research Chair in Water Policy and Governance, University of Waterloo, and chair of the RBC Blue Water Project Advisory Panel.

The RBC Blue Water Project is a 10-year, $50 million philanthropic commitment to supporting organizations that protect watersheds and ensure access to clean drinking water in Canada and abroad. Since 2007, RBC has committed more than $32 million in single and multi-year grants to 454 organizations, including the 30 announced today.

Earlier in September, RBC also announced a commitment of $1.1 million to ONE DROP’s Project India, a program to educate and improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation in Orissa, one of India’s poorest states. This is part of RBC’s 10-year, $10 million pledge to ONE DROP.

—————————————————————

2011 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership Grants

(Financial references in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.)

NATIONAL (Canada)

Free the Children: A grant of $420,000 will fund the delivery of H2O 4U, a water-focused speaking tour that is offered to middle and high schools across Canada. Speakers will inspire and educate youth about the importance of clean water at home and around the world. An RBC Blue Water Project grant of $300,000 in 2009 helped Free the Children take this tour to over 100 schools.

Tides Canada Initiatives Society / Waterlution: A grant of $200,000 will help Waterlution build on its “Future of Water” workshops, where 18-35 year olds explore critical and complex water management issues. A new “Hub Project” in five regions across Canada will allow workshop participants to put their learnings into action. An RBC Blue Water Project grant of $120,000 in 2008 helped Waterlution provide 40 workshops in 28 communities.

ATLANTIC CANADA

Clean Annapolis River Project: A grant of $36,000 will fund field assessments and restoration plans for watercourse barriers on the Annapolis River and its tributaries. Culverts and dams are preventing the free migration of threatened fish species to critical habitats.

Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton: A grant of $35,000 will help this organization monitor streams that are affected by development and land use as well as restoring the Salmon River and its tributaries.

QUEBEC

Comité Zone d’Interventions Prioritaires (ZIP) Alma-Jonquière: A grant of $240,000 will fund a community stewardship project, operating in 40 major watersheds in Quebec and expanding into New Brunswick. Volunteers are trained to monitor hundreds of rivers, collecting data for the identification and assessment of developing problems. Students from elementary school and up will be engaged through the Ministry of Education for New Brunswick.

Fondation de la Faune du Quebec: A grant of $200,000 will help this organization develop and share water and habitat conservation best practices and raise awareness about sustainable agricultural practices with more than 500 agricultural producers in southern Quebec.

ONTARIO

Upper Thames River Conservation Authority: A grant of $120,000 will kick-start a Clean Water Project for individual rural farming and non-farming landowners, providing technical assistance and financial incentives for projects that will improve and protect ground and surface water quality, such as decommissioning unused wells, soil erosion control, clean water diversions around barnyards, woodland and wetland enhancement, tree planting, fuel storage and septic system upgrades.

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper (LOW): A $200,000 grant helped LOW launch Swim Guide in June, 2011. Swim Guide is a free smartphone app that helps people locate the closest, cleanest beach for swimming, get directions, view photos, and share their experience through social networks. LOW used an RBC Blue Water Project grant of $200,000 in 2008 to create the Guide.

Georgian Bay Forever: A grant of $100,000 will support the production of the ‘Eastern Georgian Bay Health Report’ for release in the summer of 2012. The report will outline the current conditions of the region from the Severn River to Killarney including ecological conditions, general threats, “hot spots” of special concern, and emerging issues. In addition, the report will identify knowledge gaps, research opportunities and detail local stewardship activities.

Royal Ontario Museum: A $100,000 grant supported the delivery of the museum’s Water: The Exhibit display, providing an informative, dramatic, and educational experience about the importance of water to more than 125,000 visitors in six months.

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Foundation: A grant of $100,000 will help the George Richardson Park Project reduce levels of phosphorus entering Lake Simcoe with activities such as community tree planting and irrigation activities.

One Change Foundation: A grant of $100,000 will help this organization mobilize Ottawa residents to take action on residential water waste. In collaboration with the City of Ottawa, volunteers and One Change staff will go door to door to distribute simple kits that show people how to detect and repair common toilet leaks.

Hamilton Conservation Foundation: A grant of $90,000 will help the Foundation protect, enhance and restore environmentally significant natural areas and watercourses by educating and working one-on-one with landowners.

Ottawa Riverkeeper: A grant of $75,000 will fund a 28-day, 90 kilometre exploration of crucial water issues in the Ottawa River watershed, in partnership with Canadian Geographic and the Canadian Canoe Foundation. The expedition will be broadcast online and the information collected will be used as part of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper “Swim Drink Fish” application, also funded by an RBC Blue Water Project grant.

Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority: A grant of $50,000 will support The Healthy Shorelines Clean Water Stewardship Program, which will raise awareness about the ecological health of the watershed through educational outreach to residents and landowners, including shoreline consultations, community workshops, demonstration projects and financial assistance to landowners to implement qualified projects.

MANITOBA

Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation: A grant of $225,000 will fund “Green Banks: Clear Waters”, a program to improve water quality in riparian areas in four south-central Manitoba conservation districts. A new riparian health assessment tool will help community-based watershed groups classify, analyze, and provide riparian health information to their stakeholders. This collaborative project also involves Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, Agri-Environment Service Branch and Manitoba Water Stewardship.

Lake Winnipeg Foundation: A grant of $40,000 will support the Sensitive Habitat Inventory and Mapping (SHIM) project that will provide baseline scientific information for shoreline management.

ALBERTA

Trout Unlimited Canada: A grant of $150,000 will enable this organization to increase riparian health, and improve water quality in the Drywood Creek Watershed system in southwest Alberta. Working in collaboration with Drywood-Yarrow Conservation Partnership and Southwest Alberta Conservation Partnership, agricultural producers will be engaged to protect sensitive riparian areas from cattle grazing by installing protective fencing and off-stream livestock watering systems.

Bow River Basin Council: A grant of $40,000 will help the Council modify an existing computer program so it can simulate the effects of natural ecological processes and land uses on water quality, natural capital values, agricultural lands, municipal revenues, municipal operating costs, and natural areas. Municipalities and watershed management groups will use the information to identify optimum zoning strategies, planning and best practices.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

A.S.T.C. Science World Society: A grant of $300,000 will help Science World add a “Water Story” to its new 35,000 square foot interactive outdoor science park. The Water Story’s exhibits will include a wetland habitat, a cistern to illustrate rainwater capture for gardening and agriculture, an interactive outdoor stream table to demonstrate the benefits and risks of man-made reservoirs and dams, and a water infrastructure display to demonstrate where our water comes from and where it goes.

Trout Unlimited Canada: A grant of $125,000 will help this organization complete a project that will restore and improve access to degraded fish habitats in six streams flowing into Qualicum Bay. RBC provided a grant of $75,000 in 2009 to cover the first phase of the program. This project is a collaboration between Trout Unlimited, Nile Creek Enhancement Society and Vancouver Island University.

Fraser Valley Conservancy: A grant of $120,000 will fund a collaborative project between the Conservancy, the Chilliwack River Action Committee and the City of Abbotsford to enhance and protect over fifty acres of land, restore over ten acres, and increase the biological function and improve wildlife habitats at four sites within the Fraser River Watershed.

Pacific Salmon Foundation: A grant of $70,000 will help the Foundation launch ‘Salmon-Safe B.C.’, a farm certification program to protect Salmon by transforming land management practices To earn Salmon-Safe certification, farms are required to improve irrigation efficiency, reduce run-off and wind erosion, protect wildlife habitat, cultivate ecological compensation areas to enhance native biodiversity, as well as reduce or eliminate the use of harmful pesticides.

UNITED STATES

New York Harbor Foundation: A grant of US$375,000 will help the Foundation improve water quality in the Harbor through the Billion Oysters NYC project, which will plant one billion oysters by 2050. In a healthy marine ecosystem, oysters are a keystone species. Each oyster is a natural water-filtration system, pumping between 20 and 50 gallons of water through its gills each day and extracting algae and phytoplankton for its food.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation: A grant of US$250,000 will fund an ongoing project to restore the Bay’s natural filters, through restoration of wetlands, forested buffers and oysters that filter and absorb pollution. Seventeen million people live in this 64,000 sq. mile watershed. The leading cause of the Bay’s impairment is nitrogen pollution from agriculture and the Foundation will work with individual farmers to implement agricultural best practices to prevent nitrogen pollution.

National Geographic Society: A grant of US$250,000 will provide ongoing support to Freshwater Initiatives including a Freshwater Fellow who delivers briefings, lectures and keynote speeches around the globe, building support for global water issues and inspiring action. RBC’s grant also provides funding for a Fresh Water Editor to further develop the content of the freshwater website.

LightHawk: A grant of US$240,000 will help LightHawk, an organization that helps conservation groups collect scientific data and imagery of land and water resources from the air, develop guidelines for geo-referencing photos and aerial data collection, provide tips for aerial photography and radio telemetry for wildlife studies and encourage key partners and pilots to serve as mentors to others. LightHawk’s network of 180 experienced volunteer pilots donate flights to conservation groups, government agencies and universities in North and Central America.

Great River Greening: A grant of US$100,000 will support an ongoing water quality improvement project in five Minnesota watersheds. This organization works with landowners, community, agriculture, nonprofit and government partners to encourage participation in government agricultural conservation programs that reduce water pollution. It also encourages farmers and farmland owners implement conservation plans to reduce pollution.

Cahaba River Society: A grant of US$35,000 will be directed to programs that improve the conservation of drinking water, and protect the recreational and freshwater biodiversity value of the Cahaba River.

BAHAMAS

Bahamas National Trust: A grant of $300,000 will fund a collaborative project with the Nature Conservancy to reduce threats to sensitive natural areas and increase community stewardship of watersheds and water resources, including training for park managers and guides about the significance of blue holes, a water conservation program for schools throughout the country, and a Geographic Information System database of freshwater resources and threats.

UNITED KINGDOM

Woodland Trust: A grant of $95,000 will support a project to increase awareness of the role of trees in managing water quality and flood management.

BRAZIL

Wildlife Conservation Society: A grant of $100,000 will support a watershed and wildlife restoration project in the Pantanal region of Brazil. This organization works directly with ranchers to convert to more sustainable practices that will result in improved watershed management and healthier and more profitable ranches.

For further information:
Jackie Braden, RBC Brand Communications, 416-974-1724

Dianne Saxe: Fracking, drinking water and regulation

May 2, 2011 via envirolaw

Jessica Ernst has launched a multi million dollar lawsuit against Encana Corporation, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, and the Alberta government for contamination of her property and drinking water due to Encana’s fracking program.

Encana fractures rock to extract coal bed methane, much as fracking is used to extract natural gas from shale. (In March, after a public hearing, Quebec put a moratorium on shale gas exploration pending a full environmental assessment of the potential damage from fracking.) According to the Statement of Claim, many Albertans depend on drinking water from coal bed aquifers, but Ms. Ernst’s water is now so contaminated that it can be lit on fire.

She is also suing Alberta’s oil and gas regulator, alleging that it not only tolerated illegal behaviour by Encana and failed to protect her, but actively attempted to silence her complaints, and that Alberta Environment showed bad faith in “investigating” those complaints.

The lawsuit, together with the Quebec moratorium, signals the likelihood of stronger environmental regulations of fracking in the pursuit of shale gas or coalbed methane.