Caneberg water sample: declarations “at Va-COMME

Huge quantities of water taken by cranberry producers escape any public statement, reveals a report by the Ministry of the Environment, which prevents a clear idea of the pressure on watercourses. In the very end of the industry, several companies transmit any way.

The internal investigation of the ministry even mentions possibly deceptive information.

According to our sources, civil servants are concerned not to have access to a specific portrait, especially since the available information is already worrying.

The “dazzling boom” of the production of cranberries could put the water resource at risk in certain sectors of Center-du-Québec, even empty certain rivers, concludes one of their reports, obtained by Radio-Canada.

In their opinion of October 2024, the experts of the ministry indicate that little specific data is available on the volumes of water taken by the cranbergers, which does not allow Determine the precise impact of these samples.

Cranbergières take tens of millions of liters of water, quantities similar to medium -sized municipalities, without declaring everything to the government.

Certain information is possibly distorted, exaggerated or misleading, of the admission of a cranberry producer, citing the interest in reducing the impact of water withdrawals from the availability of the resource.

Cranberry producers mainly take rainwater, but some also pump water directly in rivers. The ministry notes that few producers who make both are able to know the proportion of one or the other.

A mystery remains in the ministry’s investigation: 38 cranbergers asked and obtained the right to take water in the water, but only 23 have declared such catchments. Did those who have not declared it omitted to do so?

It’s too “complex”, answers the industry

Questioned by Radio-Canada, the president of the Quebec Cranberry Producers Association, Vincent Godin, shows the regulations changes implemented since 2019, which oblige its members to declare rainwater samples.

It puts a lot of pressure on our industryhe explains, and there is a complexity that comes from that: we are not in a factory where we control what enters and what comes out.

He says that Industry did not have clear parameters from the ministry.

For a long time, we had a big vague from the ministry, namely what a volume we declare.

During an interview with journalists of The green weekthis winter, Vincent Godin had explained that some producers, like him, do not declare the samples of precipitation water because there is no way to assess or calculate them.

He believes that resources are also lacking in the ministry to properly assess: Everyone does that as he thinks. […] It is really not well structured.

Environmental regulations are made so wide and so difficult to apply for agriculture that it is done a little at Va-Comme-I-Tous-Pousse.

If we want to talk about fine management, it will take this datareacts the president of the consultation group of the watersheds of the Bécancour zone, Gervais Pellerin. I do not know how much the ministry can force people who have taken water to measure what they really take.

A calculation method developed by the industry itself

Currently, the method used to calculate the water samples of the cranberries is the so -called “AKVO” method, developed by a consultant firm of the same name, mandated by the Association of Producers.

The method was the subject of discussions between the ministry, the APCQ and the firm, which has given rise to modifications. The ministry now accepts the latest version of Akvo.

With the association of cranquer producers, the Ministry of the Environment has mandated researchers from Laval University to improve the method in this area. The work must end in 2028.

There are 86 cranberries in the province, almost all of Center-du-Québec. And the Ministry of the Environment is currently analyzing 26 requests for new projects or enlargements, in Center-du-Québec.

Canada is the second world producer of cranberries, whose production is mainly in Center-du-Québec. About 90 % of the production is exported.