Farms near 10,000-hectare watershed to be evaluated

A winding river, a source of drinking water for many people, flows past barns, pastures and farm animals dotting the landscape near Stewiacke.

It's picturesque, even on a grey, chilly day.

It's also the focus of a $150,000 pilot project to help farmers in the St. Andrews watershed area identify potential hazards to rural and town drinking water supplies and help pay to eliminate them.

Program co-ordinator Tom van Oirschot of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture estimates there are 40 landowners involved in some sort of farming in the nearly 10,000-hectare watershed.

The area, encompassing parts of Colchester and Halifax counties, is the source of drinking water for wells and 1,500 nearby Town of Stewiacke residents who are hooked up to a municipal supply.

"If (farmers) minimize environmental risks in their operations, then ultimately the water that leaves their farms, which goes into groundwater or surface water, is of good quality," Mr. van Oirschot said Saturday at a public meeting held to explain the project to farmers and other residents.

He hopes in the next few weeks to begin visiting as many farms as possible to assess environmental risks. He'll determine the "highest potential risks to contaminate water" and recommend to a watershed committee of municipal and agricultural representatives how they should spend the money.

"If, for example, we have areas where cattle are having direct access to water, there could be money to fence cattle out of water courses," Mr. van Oirschot said. "Then, if you're fencing them out of water courses, you have to give them an alternative supply of water."

Until now, size often mattered when it came to getting government funding.