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Water Quality
Maintaining the quality of Prince Edward Island's water is essential to our health, environment, and economy. We depend on groundwater for drinking water. Our waterways provide habitat for a wide variety of fish and other aquatic species. Industries such as fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism also depend on healthy streams and rivers.
Human activity can affect water quality in a number of ways. Some of the biggest threats to water quality include:
Soil erosion and sedimentation: Heavy sediment loads can fill in ponds and cover the gravel bottoms of streams, whcih are needed for fish spawning habitat.
Agricultural chemicals: Most fish kills follow heavy rainfall evetns. Runoff water containing agricultural chemicals has resulted in numerous fish kills on Prince Edward Island. Chemical pollutants not only kill fish and other aquatic animals, they can potentially harm other animals that feed on the dead fish.
Excessive nutrients (eutrophication): Large amounts of nutrients (mainly nitrates) enter streams and estuaries through surface runoff and groundwater. Excessive nutrients in ponds and estuaries cause an increased growth of aquatic plant material. This can lead to a high biological oxygen demand and anoxic (lack of oxygen) conditions in estuaries. This is most severe when the aquatic plants die and break down.
Other contaminants: These can come from forestry, transportation, and development activities.
For more information on water quality, please visit the links below:
