Peace and Environment News* February 1996
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Peace and Environment News * February 1996 |
by Meg Sears
Farmland and natural areas in Ottawa-Carleton will give way to development sprawl and expensive infrastructure if the Ontario Conservative government adopts proposed changes in land use planning legislation.
The changes impact heavily on the province's wetlands. Under the proposed Bill 20, the Land Use Planning and Protection Act, current wetlands policy will be dramatically watered down, and wetlands in much of Eastern Ontario will no longer be considered provincially significant.
The Ontario wetlands policy approved in the early 1990s was the result of over ten years of discussion and revision. The policy prohibited development in provincially significant areas, and required an Environmental Impact Study for development within 120 metres of these areas. In 1995, the policy was reaffirmed and given added clarity by requiring local decisions to be consistent with provincial policy.
For fifteen years the provincial government has struggled with regulating and banning development on wetlands. The ecological values of wetlands are recognized by all. Wetlands cleanse the water we drink and the air we breathe. Biological activity is greater in wetlands than anywhere else, slowing the changes our lifestyles are inflicting on the world. Wetlands are essential for life. Most wildlife, birds and fish spend at least part of their life in a wetland, or eat something that does. Wetlands are critical for maintaining ground and surface water and for controlling floods and erosion.
In Ottawa-Carleton, the Carp Hills wetland is a major groundwater recharge area. It is the source of clean water for much of rural Kanata and West Carleton. The Constance Creek wetland cleanses the run-off from large areas, and stabilizes flows to the Ottawa River, the source of water for Ottawa. Further from home, the flooding of the Mississippi was exacerbated because virtually every wetland and meandering stream around it had been turned into an efficient drainage ditch.
Wetlands are vast natural sponges. They soak up and slow down water that would otherwise become a raging flood, and they release water slowly to maintain streams and groundwater in dry times. Drainage of wetland sloughs and potholes worsened the drought of the "dirty thirties." In the face of climate change, wetlands are becoming increasingly important.
We are already seeing the effects of draining wetlands along at least one river in our Region. The Carp River used to flood only in the spring, but now it floods after major rains, because the wetlands in the headwater areas have been channelized and subdivided for housing. The effects snowball as erratic water levels damage fencing close to the river's main channel, making it difficult to fence the river to keep cattle out. Fencing cattle from streams is one key to maintaining and improving water quality and fish habitat.
Wetlands policy has curbed development on some of the Region's class 1 wetlands—Leitrim, Constance Creek, Carp Hills. However, the Region has not amended its Official Plan to recognize wetlands, and the Association of Rural Property Owners (spearheaded by large landowners and developers) has lobbied for relaxing the rules.
If the current government proposals are passed, we can look for a flurry of development proposals before a general ecological consciousness-raising swings the pendulum back. We cannot afford this. Only a very loud chorus, now, can stop it.
Meg Sears is secretary of the Wetlands Preservation Group of West Carleton. She has a degree in engineering and has been involved in planning issues within Ottawa-Carleton and in provincial land use planning reform. She has a particular interest in natural areas and water.
Converted March 29, 2000 - Lg
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