Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Drawing on lessons learned from 2016, Quinte Conservation has developed a drought plan for the region.
Mark Boone, hydrogeologist and drought project coordinator with Quinte Conservation, presented the plan to Greater Napanee council during their April 26 meeting, held virtually and broadcast on Zoom.
Funding for the project came from $25,000 from municipal partners within the Quinte Conservation watershed, which includes the drainage basins of the Moira, Napanee and Salmon Rivers, as well as all of Prince Edward County.
“We’ve been able to achieve a lot of good things with this money,” said Boone. “We’ve been looking at the water budget, and the impacts of climate change, we’ve been able to develop a drought management plan, which is a regional plan for use of all municipalities and the people that live in those municipalities. That plan was guided by a steering committee and that committee was made up of different ministries, the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Agricultural and Food, Natural Resources, quite a number of municipal staff from both water and development planning departments, emergency management coordinator, the list goes on.”
Boone noted low water has been declared in half of the last 19 summers, with 2016 standing out as the most severe on record. To help quantify the losses seen in 2016 Boone tracked bulk water sales, which were up 70 per cent in Napanee to the tune of $125,000. Across Lennox and Addington County an estimated $18 million in crop insurance claims were made that summer.
In an effort to mitigate the worst of the droughts, regions are encouraged to prepare long before one is declared. To that end the plan had added a fourth level to the drought conditions measurement system known as normal conditions.
“The trend is for more serious droughts to occur,” said Boone. “We don’t see Level 1 droughts anymore. Recently when we do get a drought, it’s a fairly significant one.”
Boone noted an effort to reduce fossil fuels would have a huge impact on rising temperatures, which leads to faster evaporation of local waterways.
“If we can curb our reliance of fossil fuels and change how much fossil fuels we burn, we can reduce that rate of warming by three degrees to an average annual 11 degrees Celsius,” said Boone.
The plan also includes the formation of a low water response team, establishing indicators of drought, monitoring parameters for detection of drought, steps for municipalities, emergency planning and direction on when to declare a state of emergency.
Boone added Quinte Conservation has also added $80,000 worth of gauges on local lakes to collect data.
Council voted to note and receive the report.
-Council voted to accept the Napanee BIA’s 2021 operating budget with total expenses of $77,464. The bulk of it will go to wages and benefits at $47,000 with $12,000 going to beautification, $8,000 to advertising. An estimated surplus of $13,935 is expected at the end of the year.
Councillor Bob Norrie, who sits on the BIA committee made the successful motion to pass the budget. This was the second attempt to have the BIA budget passed by council.
-An update on the progress of the KMPG report is expected to come at the next meeting, which is scheduled for May 11.
Citing the hot real estate market, Deputy Mayor Max Kaiser directed town staff to provide the update on the status of the report. All of the town’s property sales have been put on hold while they await the findings of the report.
“I don’t want to leave anything unturned, but time’s ticking here,” said Kaiser. “I think I speak for council on this but our first impression was a few months. We’re now at nine months and counting in the whole process and the moratorium still sits and continues.”
The report is expected to further expand on the report that was released by KPMG earlier this year on Jan. 26. The second report is to do a deep dive into controlled breakdowns made on select properties over the last decade.
KPMG put together the original report at council’s request after public outcry following the sale of 32 Oke Rd to former Greater Napanee mayor Gord Schermerhorn. A tender process was held for the property in 2019, with only one bid, for $10,100, received on time. About three months after the property was purchased from the town, it was sold again for nearly 10 times what it was purchased for from the town.