Published September 23, 2024

By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The boil-water advisory may be over, but the work to protect water quality in Missisquoi Bay – which provides drinking water to Bedford, Bedford Township, Philipsburg (Saint-Armand) and Stanbridge Station – is far from finished, local officials say.

An unusually vigorous cyanobacteria bloom turned the water “green as your grass” for several days last week, Bedford Mayor Claude Dubois told the BCN.

“We have been dealing with cyanobacteria outbreaks for 35-40 years, but nothing like this,” Dubois said.

Agronomist Louis Robert is the coordinator of the phosphorus reduction program at the Organisme du Bassin Versant de la Baie Missisquoi (OBVBM) and the watershed organization’s main point person on the issue of cyanobacteria blooms. “It’s the first time we had such a big bloom that started so early and lasted so long,” he said.

Climate change, he said, was an aggravating factor but not the main cause of the bloom. Robert explained that cyanobacteria blooms, sometimes known as blue-green algae blooms, are fueled by phosphorus in the water, and aggravated by hot weather and shallow, stagnant water. “The situation in the bay is especially bad, because it’s shallow and the water doesn’t move very much, and we have a high concentration of phosphorus in the water.” Phosphorus is a key component in many agricultural fertilizers, and also in animal manure. “This is a wake-up call, the result of decades of inappropriate agricultural processes, too much phosphorus, bigger herds leading to too much manure,” Robert said, emphasizing that he didn’t want to “throw stones” at individual farmers, who he said receive conflicting messages about the dangers of phosphorus overuse from salespeople, government officials and environmental groups. The fact that Lake Champlain straddles the U.S.-Canada border also poses a regulatory challenge.

“Even if we stopped bringing in all the phosphorus [from] chemical fertilizer and manure tomorrow, it would take years for the water quality to improve,” he added. The OBVBM is developing an awareness campaign with “demonstration fields” to show that it’s possible to farm without phosphorus.

Filtration plant struggles

The filtration plant in Bedford, which serves Philipsburg and surrounding towns, is the only one in Quebec which draws drinking water from Missisquoi Bay, part of Lake Champlain. It has struggled to provide clean drinking water for much of the summer. “We had a leak and a pipe that we had to replace [in addition to the cyanobacteria]. Everything has been against us this year, but fall and winter are coming – and we’re kind of impatient for winter, because in winter we don’t have cyanobacteria,” said Dubois. The town put a boil-water advisory in effect from Sept. 14-19 due to a broken pipe; earlier this summer, the town relied on a tanker truck for drinking water for several weeks.

Dubois said engineers have told him that piping in the water from further out in the lake, using a larger pipe and an aeration system, will lead to improved water quality. “For the last two or three years, we’ve been talking about doing something like that,” he said.  However, the municipality needs to get federal approval before moving forward with building a new conduit, which will cost an estimated $1.8 million. Assuming the town receives the necessary approvals and grants, they will have a small window early next year to get the conduit built.

“Our concern is, everyone needs water to live. The population needs this service,” Dubois said.

A spokesperson for Brome-Missisquoi MP Pascale St-Onge told La Voix de l’Est that St-Onge “is very aware of the situation and is working with the different ministries concerned and various stakeholders to find a solution.”

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