Greenhouse wastewater discharges provoke legislation debate

From Better Farming: Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller questions whether the Nutrient Management Act can be used for wastewater discharges from greenhouses, an idea Ontario’s horticultural sector recently proposed to the provincial government. Currently, anyone discharging more than 10,000 liters of water a day must get an Environmental Compliance Approval from the environment ministry, which the industry describes as an onerous and expensive process.

The Act isn’t about discharges to waterways “it’s about the proper management of manure and spreading manure on agricultural land,” says Miller, the province’s independent environmental watchdog.

The government would have to pass an entirely new Nutrient Management Act “which identified water discharges from greenhouses not as sewage works under the Ontario Water Resources Act. They would have to change that whole structure of the Act,” he says.

The commissioner made the comments during an interview about a Ministry of the Environment study in Essex County, Greenhouse Wastewater Monitoring Project, 2010 and 2011, released this month. Policy-making is not a part of his role and he is not a member of the provincial environment ministry, which published the study.

The study found many greenhouses discharged wastewater containing high levels of phosphorous into nearby creeks that flow into Lake Erie. In particular, environment ministry water quality monitoring from greenhouse outfalls found greenhouse discharge to be responsible for direct degradation of the water quality in Sturgeon Creek and Lebo Drain. “They are the most polluted waterways in Ontario with respect to phosphorus and nitrate and in the top five most polluted with respect to potassium and copper,” the study’s summary claims.

In a May 9 press release, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers says farmers are concerned about the wastewater test results. Growers consider it important to protect water quality because they live on or near properties containing their greenhouses and depend on that water for their families and crops.

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