H2O: Ideas & Action for Canada's Water

Further to the blog I posted yesterday about video of the flooding in North Dakota along the US portion of the Red River, here are some equally disturbing images taken by Joe Bryska, photographer with the Winnipeg Free Press. Joe’s pictures are taken along the Red River from Morris up to St. Jean Baptiste. Once again it looks like most homes are protected from the flooding but the farmland has become a sea.
Southern Manitoba has a high rate of intensive hog operations, many of which would use lagoons to store their liquid manure. I’m not sure how many of these lagoons may have been breached but looking at these pictures certainly makes one think that it’s a good possibility it has happened. Kerry Freek of Water Canada has posted a blog today mentioning that she has requested an article for their May/June issue from Terry Hanley, Director of Science, Information and Monitoring at the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority. He’ll be discussing the risks flooding poses to water quality and particularly to users of private wells.
Once again, it strikes me that the majority of Manitobans who live within the city of Winnipeg are well protected from the immediate effects of this flooding, but over the long term our lakes will bear the consequences of the increased nutrients and pollutants flowing off the land.