There is news of fish kills die to the oxygen being squeezed out by algae etc on PEI rivers. I go swimming in the Hillsborough River with the dogs on hot days and have been struck this summer by the huge clumps and mats of vegetation in the river - significantly worse than in previous years.
So what is the end game here?
Our rivers and streams are in enough trouble because of causeways that have choked the flow - but the accumulation of nitrates seems to be reaching a tipping point.
What will PEI be like if its rivers and stream become stagnant marshes?
Many hope that we have time to reduce nitrates. Many see the concentration only in the high use potato areas. But do we have the time? Systems don't change gradually - they tip. Are we Tipping?
Systems are also interconnected - is flow and hence causeways a related issue? Is not the water table also connected?
Some say it's only a few fish? Really - how can a place be livable if all its water systems atrophy? Hello it's all about us and our future.
I suspect that we don't have the time and that this is not as simple as we had thought. So what would I do?
I would change my time horizon to immediate and I would ask myself what would be the outcomes if our rivers died in say 3 years? That might change where I put this issue. I would expand the issue to riverine health - that would include flow.
Finally I would ask this question - what happens to a place that has no moving surface water?
