The suburbs and the countryside have become the new El Dorado for a growing number of residents of major centres, which is stimulating urban sprawl that threatens natural environments, agricultural land and the supply of drinking water, in addition to increasing the pressure on municipalities. called upon to manage an unbridled growth of their population with limited resources. First article in a series of three on the urban sprawl that is eating away at Quebec.
By eating into natural environments and agricultural land, urban sprawl puts pressure on Quebec’s water reserves. Already, several municipalities are grappling with serious supply problems and, at this rate, some regions are in danger of exhausting a reserve of blue gold that seemed to them until now infinite, according to many specialists.
Over the past year, Saint-Lin–Laurentides and Sutton have limited residential construction for fear of water shortages. In Montérégie, Saint-Rémi ran out of the precious resource while Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville asked its citizens to write to the Premier of Quebec to ask him to build the infrastructure needed to transport water.
In the Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-Ouelle must extend its aqueduct network because properties are supplied with “poor quality water”, which raises fears for “the sustainability of their water source”, reads -on in documents filed with the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ). For its part, Lanoraie wants to dig a well to pump 16% more water, while Saint-Hippolyte, in the Laurentians, forces real estate developers who have to dig more than four wells to submit a hydrogeological study.
The domino effect of urban sprawl is well known: it leads to population growth in the regions, which results in an increase in the quantity of water consumed, sums up Kim Marineau, president of Biodiversité conseil, a firm of scientific consultants. A worrying reality, especially since each Quebecer consumes an average of 262 liters per day for residential purposes, more than 2.5 times the amount to be in “real comfort”, according to the World Health Organization. .
What is more complex to assess is the impact of sprawl on the quantity and quality of water. New neighborhoods are often made to the detriment of green spaces: cutting of wooded areas, draining of wetlands, loss of agricultural land. “We must absolutely understand that these environments have their uses so that water remains a renewable resource. They capture water [aussi bien la neige qui fond que les pluies]. These media also serve to filter impurities from the water,” she explains.
The “destruction of wetlands” and waterproofing – which has the effect of diverting water from underground reserves – “weaken not only the aquifers, but also the rivers”, reminds Frédéric Lasserre, expert in geopolitics Water and Director of the Quebec Council for Geopolitical Studies at Laval University.
“If aquifer levels drop, rivers often see their flow decrease as well,” he observes. Consequently, the entire water mechanism is upset. And this is already happening in some regions. “I think that too many municipalities are too careless when it comes to water resources,” says the specialist, emphasizing the importance of planning the development of residential areas by considering the resource’s ability to renew itself.
Paving natural environments for Highway 25
Similar story from hydrogeologist Julie Gauthier, vice-president at Laforest Nova Aqua. When it comes to urban sprawl and the availability of water, “it is clear that we are navigating by sight,” she recalls. “There is no one in Quebec who has taken the responsibility of quantifying the resource in detail so that we can say, when we want to develop such and such a sector or region: ‘Here, we have so many cubic meters of water underground per year of availability without falling into overexploitation”. »
The case of Lanaudière is interesting here. The needs are already being felt there, while the population should grow by 16% over the next 20 years, according to the most recent projections of the Institut de la statistique du Québec. However, it is precisely in this region that the Government of Quebec intends to extend Highway 25, between Saint-Esprit and Saint-Julienne, thus facilitating access.
The four-lane route, which will stretch over 9.2 kilometers, must pass through the Saint-Esprit de Montcalm forest area, which has been presented as “exceptional” by the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against climate change in a note sent to the Ministry of Transport: “This stand constitutes a rare forest, as well as a forest refuge for threatened or vulnerable species which will be crossed by the right-of-way of the national road. »
Julie Gauthier raises questions without having answers: “Can the region assume a fivefold increase in water consumption, for example? What is the capacity of the aquifers of Lanaudière, a region that is in granite [ce qui change la capacité de recharge des réserves] ? We do not know. »
Charles-Félix Ross is Director General of the Union des producteurs agricole (UPA). When we talk about neighborhood construction projects in various regions, he replies: “We continue to develop in the same way as we did in the past, that is to say on a case-by-case basis. The development plans — like the one adopted in 2012 by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal — have not eliminated the pressure on agricultural land: “We were told that there was enough space in the white zone [zone destinée au résidentiel, au commercial et à l’industriel]. But we always come back with encroachments on agricultural areas, either for economic reasons, or to build highways or schools because the population is increasing. »
“We develop like in the 1960s”
One example among others? In 2019, at the request of the City of Mirabel, the CPTAQ ordered the exclusion from the agricultural zone of a 7-hectare piece of land — equivalent to 11 Canadian football fields — to build a secondary school. In January of this year, the municipality returned to the charge with a request for exclusion of a plot of nearly four hectares in an agricultural zone to build a bypass near the secondary school. The CPTAQ gave him permission to use this land for purposes other than agriculture. The UPA, for its part, stressed that this was a “blatant case of poor land use planning”.
Even the Quebec government is issuing decrees authorizing companies to set up in agricultural areas, says Mr. Ross: “It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. This was the case of Google, which received the green light to settle in Bécancour” on a territory of 62 hectares, the equivalent of more than 100 football fields.
However, these “piecemeal” decisions that are taken today without hydrogeological studies will have an impact on the water supply in the coming years, reminds Kim Marineau: “Here, we are still developing as in the 1960s, and this is not because we haven’t wondered about these questions for years. »
As proof, she sent the To have to a study published in 1968 by the Urban Planning Department of the City of Montreal on “urban expansion”. While the analysis does not detail water-related issues specifically, it outlines the downsides of “somewhat disorderly growth [et] the absence of a definite planning policy”.
We can read in this nearly 55-year-old document: “New neighborhoods are being built, suburbs are springing up on the outskirts of the Montreal agglomeration, the built-up areas spread out in oil stains and in long antennae at random along the roads, rivers and railways… and sometimes, at the pleasure of real estate companies. »