Stop blaming the ills of Lake Winnipeg on farmers

When Arian de Bekker of Morris Piglets Ltd. of Winkler, MB. heard the news about raw sewage running into Lake Winnipeg via the Red River, he had this response.
“Is it not appalling that in this day and age, with all of our technological knowledge and science, the City of Winnipeg can get away with discharging over two billion litres so far at 60 million liters per day of partly (50 per cent) treated sewage straight into the Red River,” says de Bekker. “It is a sin that City of Winnipeg officials can allow this to happen quietly, since October 7, already and still no solution has been found. So it just carries on. Why did nobody speak up any sooner...”
de Bekker says so much for saving Lake Winnipeg and that is his point of contention. It is very acceptable to bring in legislation that bans the development of hog barns in Manitoba, which became effective in a matter of weeks, but to run partly treated sewage in the river and then the lake can be explained away, and on it goes.
He says if during this period when the City of Winnipeg dumped almost one half billion litres of partly treated sewage into the Red River, that’s equal to farmers dumping the manure from 151,000 sows straight into the river.
“That is the same as allowing 120 sow barns of approximately 1250 sows each to just dump straight into the river and yet, no hog producer does that, ever,” he emphasises.
de Bekker says this province's swine sector had to wear the penitential robe for the increased phosphate levels in Lake Winnipeg. Someone ought to tell the City of Winnipeg they should be brave enough to step forward and say, "Sorry, a lot of this pollution is caused by us and unfortunately we do not have a solution (yet)".

The Winkler area hog producer and director on the Manitoba Pork Council asks can the Minister of Water Stewardship ask the City of Winnipeg to acknowledge a record of how many times and how much untreated or partly treated sewage gets discharged into the Red River and to calculate from that how much phosphate actually goes into the river?
Then, with that information, the City should provide a plan to prevent this from happening ever again.
“A moratorium on the development of new housing in the City of Winnipeg until advanced environmental technology is in place to prevent discharging sewage into the Red River would only be equal to what the Provincial government has presented to the hog industry by banning any further expansion across the province,” said de Bekker. “Just imagine the nutrients that are floating into the lake to grow more algae because of this ongoing problem.”
Les Routledge, the small farmer from Killarney and farm commentator likes the moratorium statement on new housing developments, but would go further and call for a stop on all construction in Winnipeg until they solve this matter.
“Indeed, I will go one step further.  The province should levy a fine on the City of Winnipeg and force them to pass that fine onto consumers in a surcharge through a special bill that explicitly fines each user of water service in Winnipeg,” says Routledge. “I suggest a nominal $100 per customer charge.”
Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) is deeply concerned about the negative impact the City of Winnipeg’s sewage discharges are having on the Red River, Assiniboine River and Lake Winnipeg.
“It appears that releasing untreated or partially treated sewage into the rivers has become standard practice by the city, meanwhile the Government of Manitoba is not focusing on preventing or regulating these releases which are unquestionably contributing to the degradation of Lake Winnipeg,” said Doug Chorney, KAP President.
The province is consistently singling out agriculture as the main cause of Lake Winnipeg’s water quality problems while dismissing the pollution the City of Winnipeg is contributing to the lake. Farmers believe it is time for the government to come clean and focus on the big picture.
“We want Manitobans to know that agriculture and farmers are not to blame for the problems associated with Lake Winnipeg. We are applying manure or fertilizer to land through controlled, science-based, government-regulated practices, while the city is discharging sewage directly into waterways without any consequences,” said Chorney. •
— By Harry Siemens

photo  Arian de Bekker of Winkler, MB