Water is a big environmental issue in King Township

Gardeners in King, especially vegetable gardeners, had a difficult time keeping their plants growing this summer due to the very hot and dry weather.

If one had barrels placed under downspouts to catch the rainwater, they found they were invaluable. We had continual reminders of the vagaries of climate change resulting from global warming. It seems incredible that to date we haven't had a killing frost, which in the time-honoured way, has always been anticipated sometime between early September and the 15th. Parts of Europe, notably Italy, Romania and neighbouring countries, and Greece (where wide spread fires were raging) and also places on this continent, including Canada (eg, British Columbia) have experience extremely hot weather; with more than one location marking record temperatures. India and Bangladesh had the worst monsoon flooding in more than 50 years, and there was flooding in northern England. More serious for Europe is the loss of crop yields of around 30 per cent in the regions most affected, and in North America, a 20- per cent reduction in the wheat harvest. In this area, time and again, we had tantalizing showers, whereas farmers were fervently hoping for two to three days of steady rain.

The numbers of die-hard skeptics of global warming are declining steadily, especially in the face of the latest findings relating to the breakdown of the permafrost virtually all the way across the northern region from Alaska to Canada's Melville Island in the high Arctic. Canada has 40 per cent of its territory in the Arctic and we are on the front lines of climate change. The quickly-vanishing Arctic sea ice constitutes unmistakable evidence that the challenges are crucial. As the atmosphere warms and the ice caps melt, they will not melt, we are told, in a consistent, gradual fashion. Rather, they will start to melt faster as the century progresses, quickly reaching a point where they could disappear altogether.

Of more immediate concern to residents of this part of Ontario is the fact that the level of Lake Superior (the largest fresh water lake in the world) has dropped approximately four and a half feet. Can you believe it? This critical decline has been caused by drought, evaporation, an insufficient layer of ice during winter and abnormal run-off due to deep erosion on in the St. Clair River. Lake Huron and other bodies of water are being affected. Considering the fact that King Township and much of this region also suffered drought during this growing season, the question of course in the minds of farmers is to what degree will this year's weather be the pattern for the future? Climate change is expected to cause more drought, more intense and dangerous storms, more ferocious hurricanes (with changed pathways) and less available fresh water and arable land.

The United Nations Inter- Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us that the global climate will become unstable and unpredictable, meaning it will be hard for humans to adapt farming, housing, energy sources, etc. The prediction is that there will be too much water in some places, a scarcity in others, with more than half a billion people potentially suffering the effects of drought and flooding. At the same time, for the most part, the powers that be are simply tinkering and making reassuring noises.

If we care about food supplies; if we care about our farmers, our community and if we care about our country, we must care about preserving our water and arable land resources, here in King and elsewhere. It is imperative that th Greenbelt be greatly expanded. We will need every acre of land available, and we must stop exporting our water and urbanizing our farmland. Developers must put their moral obligations first. Lack of potable water and water for irrigation, and for land crops, causes social instability, and ultimately the potential for discord is tremendous. When we take into account what is happening now with the occurrence of drought on much of this continent, notably in the American west, in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and California, we realize that no part of the world will be unaffected. Ontario has not been spared.

At one of the open political meetings prior to the recent election, three of the six candidates in Oak Ridges - Markham stated unequivocally that King City should not have been connected to the "big pipe."

Hmmm . . . Councillor Jeff Laidlaw had it right when he wrote that "inflow and infiltration of groundwater into the big pipe system consistently reduces aquifer levels and could be considered a potential factor in water shortfall and usage restrictions."

When we think of our lakes, have we any idea of how much treated and untreated (ie, overflow) sewage Lake Ontario can possibly tolerate and still continue as a source of safe drinking water, especially as the rate of evaporation accelerates? What of the sewage discharge from other systems around the lake? What is the limit of its capacity? Does anyone know? Already the lake is polluted to the point that male fish of some species are being feminized. Can water from a lake as polluted and teeming with invasive species as Lake Ontario be treated to the point of being absolutely safe for human consumption? We could look back to some of the "official assurances" given in the past that everything in a given situation was okay, only to learn subsequently that such was far from the truth. Walkerton's situation comes to mind, and in the wake of Walkerton, the province has outlined requirements for an allencompassing plan to protect the quantity and quality of water sources. Surely such a plan would include preserving the aquifers of the Oak Ridges Moraine in King Township. We learned recently that when three of the provincial party leaders were tested for contaminants in their blood, each one had 87 or more, and it is altogether likely that they drink Toronto's treated water. Water, food and air all contribute contaminants. One ponders (don't laugh) when the day might come that the big pipe would have to be abandoned.

Just by way of interest, Adrienne Clarkson, former governor general, and her husband have a very simple, efficient waste disposal system at their cottage with virtually no moving parts, using very little water, and the waste is continuously composted and eventually, at long intervals, returned to the land to replenish it.

John Whalley,

King City