The Nashwaak Watershed Assocation has recently submitted the formal application to classifiy the Nashwaak River and tributaries under the Water Classifciation Regulation of the Clean Water Act. This program has not moved forward from provisionally classifying NB's rivers and streams to legal implementation that would provide standards for maintaining the quality of our waters.
We are seeking your sign on in support of the submission by the Nashawaak Watershed and the Water Classification program in New Brunswick. Please see the official submission and the press release issued by the Naswaak Watershed Assocation and others on June 19th.
Sign ons to this letter will be accepted until Monday July 23rd at 12 noon. Please send your name, organization and contact to Stephanie Merrill at water@ccnbaction.ca
Bruce Fitch
Minister of Environment and Local Government
PO Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
Dear Minister Fitch,
We, the undersigned community groups, are writing to you to show our support for the 5 community-based organizations in the Nashwaak River Watershed in their co-request to finalize the water classification of the Nashwaak River and its tributaries. We applaud their efforts to secure their right to due process by filing this official request under Section 8.2 of Classification Regulation 2002-13 of the Clean Water Act 2002-56.
As you are well aware, the Water Classifications program has been an ongoing and currently funded program, of the Department of Environment and Local Government. Over the past 12 years, the waters of 22 watersheds have been comprehensively assessed, and all 21 have been given provisional classification status from the Department. We are now in limbo, with no clear indication of if, when, or how these classifications will be implemented into the Clean Water Act as intended.
The Water Classification program and subsequent Regulation has been, in theory, the 'gold standard' piece of policy for watershed management and protection across Canada. However, it is progressive only in theory because its full intent has never been realized as promised. It's follow through is key to establishing water quality standards for our surface waters which will help us to protect our most precious resource in the face of new developments slated for our watersheds.
We, the signatories to this letter represent organizations who understand the value of the Water Classification program and the urgency to legislatively protect the quality and quantity of the rivers, lakes and streams that we have all worked so diligently to enhance, protect and restore. We thank the watershed organizations for their efforts across the province who have collectively spent millions of Environmental Trust Fund dollars over the past 10 years building a program which we were all lead to believe would provide legal protection for our water.
All of us live and work and play in these watersheds and want to preserve their integrity and the clean clear water that underpins our daily lives, our economy and our heritage as New Brunswickers.
We the undersigned are awaiting your approval to classify the Nashwaak River.
Yours in water stewardship,
