The International Joint Commission, established a century ago to manage disputes about surface waters that cross the Canada-United States border, has urged both governments to clarify some still-murky cross-boundary water issues.
If there are future disputes over use of ground water, including aquifer draining, would the IJC rules of water sharing apply? Can trade agreements force either country to export water?
The IJC recommendations in an earlier report applied to water management in the Great Lakes Basin but water policy experts say they could apply to border area water sources across the country.
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The IJC recommended that both national governments agree to study the implications for water use on groundwater supplies.
“In recognition of the frequent and pervasive interaction between groundwater and surface water and the virtual impossibility of distinguishing between them in some instances, governments should apply the precautionary principle with respect to removals and consumptive use of groundwater in the basin,” said the report.
And on the implications of trade law on water, the report recommended more clarity from governments.
“The governments of the United States and Canada should direct more effort to allaying the public’s concern that international trade law obligations could prevent Canada and the United States from taking measures to protect waters in the boundary region and they also need to direct more effort to bringing greater clarity and consensus to the issue.”
Meera Karunananthan, water campaigner for the Council of Canadians, says the governments have virtually ignored those recommendations in the years since they were made.
“These are strong recommendations but frankly, they have not been acted on,” she said. Ground water in Canada has not been accurately mapped and the implications of trade deals remain unclear.
At the commission, public affairs adviser Bernard Beckhoff said the IJC may have to turn its attention to the ground water issue at some time if asked, “but the IJC has not received any references specific to ground water.”
It is unclear what jurisdiction the commission would have if there was a complaint that, on one side of the border or another, an undue amount of water was being pumped from an aquifer that crosses the border underground.
The IJC, created in 1909 when Wilfrid Laurier was prime minister and William Howard Taft was U.S. president, was meant to “prevent and resolve disputes over the use of waters shared by Canada and the United States,” says the IJC’s centennial annual report.
At issue were surface water bodies including the Great Lakes, the Niagara River, the Souris River basin and St. Mary and Milk River systems in Alberta-Montana.
In fact, growing conflict between Alberta and Montana was one of the factors in creating the dispute resolution body.
“Settlers in Montana and Alberta were building competing canals to divert the waters of the St. Mary and Milk River for their own use,” said the IJC report.
Setting water-sharing rules was a key part of IJC work.
On Oct. 4, 1921, commissioners met in Ottawa to sign a water apportionment agreement affecting Saskatchewan, Alberta and Montana.
The rivers “are to be treated as one stream for the purposes of irrigation and power and the waters shall be apportioned equally between the two countries,” it said, although all jurisdictions could take more than their half share from the closest river and at different times of the year as long as the end result was 50-50.
The rules have survived the years.
