Policy Analysis and an Overview of Technologies to Manage Agricultural Tile Runoff in Southern Ontario

Runoff from agricultural tiles contains phosphorus and nitrogen particulate, potentially contributing to the issue of algal blooms downstream. The nutrients from agricultural runoff can lead to downstream problems in the Great Lakes, such as harmful cyanobacterial blooms and hypoxia, a zone of oxygen-depleted water devoid of multicellular life. Other issues caused by excess nutrient loading are turbidity in the water which lowers the quality of drinking water, changes in the geomorphology of the stream, disruption of fish migration, and damage to fish gills and organs.

Phosphorus and nitrogen pollution from agricultural runoff is a serious issue in lakes and streams; currently, concentrations in some parts of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and their tributaries are higher than the acceptable levels. It is clear that by not protecting lakes and streams in Ontario from excessive inputs of sediments, fish habitat, and human and animal health can be affected. The relationship between agricultural tile drainage and the runoff containing nutrients, and whether best management practices (BMP) measures in Ontario can work efficiently to mitigate this issue are discussed in this paper.

The methods used to determine the effectiveness of the existing policy are an extensive examination of Provincial and Federal legislation, and stakeholder interviews. Five people from four stakeholders were interviewed - municipalities, conservation authorities, farmers and First Nations. The results of this research show that there is a legislative gap where no policy or standards exist to clearly define who is responsible for the capital costs of BMP implementation or the ecological planning for new and existing farms to mitigate runoff.