Experts say there are problems with St. John's new wetland conservation system

Developers in St. John's need places to build, but a lot of vacant land in the city is wetlands, which means it's protected by environmental regulations. 

According to Coun. Maggie Burton, an increasing number of developers have asked the city if they could build on wetlands. That led the city to come up with a new system to determine if they can.  

The system is called the Wetlands Ecosystem Services Protocol (WESP). In this system, if a wetland receives a score of six or higher, it must be protected. 

On Oct. 29, city council approved two motions relating to the protection of wetlands, removing the city's previous protection plan and replacing it with this new scoring system. 

"We will end up including many more wetlands to be conserved because of the changes we made," said Burton. 

Burton says that a second category was added that if a wetland scores an 8.5 or higher, it's automatically protected. 

"So that massively expands the number of wetlands that will receive protection within the city," she said. "And that's because of the Environment Sustainability Experts Panel."

Concerns from scientists

City council consulted the Environment and Sustainability Experts Panel (ESEP) to review the new scoring system. 

The ESEP says wetlands are a critical part of the city, as climate change is expected to increase extreme rainfall. 

"Wetlands are a cost-effective tool in mitigating and adapting to climate change," said the ESEP in its recommendations from the city council agenda. 

While the panel said it appreciates the city wants a tool to protect the wetlands from development, they are very concerned about the WESP system as it is defined by the city. 

The ESEP says it's "very concerned that there is no comprehensive analysis, consultation, or scientific basis for the current weighting of WESP's function category scores."

However, Burton says, that WESP is a standardized assessment tool developed by Oregon State University and is used all over North America. 

"So it's a really detailed method of accounting for the different functions that the wetland is serving," she said. 

Concerned public

When the amendment was first brought to council in the spring, they did public consultations. All 16 written submissions opposed the amendment, with most concerns being related to the WESP.

Sam Bromley is one concerned citizen, and he can understand the complicated math behind the WESP.  He has a doctorate in engineering and robotics and analyzes system data for a living. 

He says the city's scoring system doesn't really follow the WESP. The city's scoring system prioritizes water storage and water quality metrics, and the remaining environmental factors only make up 30 per cent. 

"What that means, however, is that even wetlands who rank highest as in their importance value for environmental factors can only, at most, attain a score of three according to this … weighting scheme," he said.

Most wetlands are protected, says Burton

Burton says 63 out of the 68 wetlands analyzed are protected, and out of the five leftover only one is good for development. 

"So we're basically protecting all but one of the wetlands that we surveyed," said Burton. "So I trust that this process going forward would, you know, lead to a similar result." 

Wetlands also play a significant role in fighting climate change. Not only will they help manage increased rainfall, but also capture carbon naturally. 

Now, Burton wants the province to develop legislation around wetland conservation. 

"The environment has no jurisdictional boundaries," said Burton. "The faster that a protection and conservation plan is implemented, the better for all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians."

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