Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Payette, K. 2006. Water quality assessment of watercourses used to irrigation of ready-to-eat produce in Cloverdale, BC, Summer 2002 - Spring 2004. BC Ministry of Environment. |
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| Organization | Ministry of Environment |
| URL | http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/regions/lower_mainland/water_quality/reports/ready-to-eat/ready_to_eat.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Numerous studies conducted have demonstrated the extensive health benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle. As awareness of the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption has grown, so has the understanding of how produce can be a source of food-borne illness under certain conditions. There have been fruit and vegetable associated disease outbreaks documented in many areas of the world. The number of foodborne illness outbreaks associated with fresh fruits and vegetables have increased in Canada over the past several years (CFIA, 2003). Locally the lowland area of the Serpentine and Nicomekl watersheds, is referred to as the “salad bowl” of British Columbia due to its important role in producing field vegetables for the province. An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, traced to consumption of spinach grown in the Cloverdale area occurred in the summer of 2001. In this case, local surface water had been used to wash produce. The water had been contaminated with fecal material containing Shigella. As a result of this outbreak and its investigation, a ReadyTo-Eat Produce Committee was formed by the BC Centre for Disease Control. (Ready-to-Eat produce are crops that are typically eaten raw by consumers.) In the summer of 2002 the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission carried out some generic E. coli testing in watercourses in and around the Cloverdale fresh produce growing area. This single set of samples gave indications of elevated generic E. coli levels in some of the watercourses used to irrigate Ready-to-Eat crops. These results were brought forward to a sub-committee of the Ready-to-Eat Produce Committee, called the Cloverdale Irrigation Water Quality Committee. This committee has representatives from a number of organizations including the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the Fraser Health Authority, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the BC Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission and the Ministry of Environment (MoE). The aim of this committee is to work together towards assessing any threats to irrigation water quality in the Cloverdale area. One of the actions identified by this committee was to have MoE collect a more comprehensive set of water quality samples on the watercourses in Cloverdale used for irrigating Ready-to-Eat produce. |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Lower Fraser |
| Sub-watershed if known | Serpentine River, Nicomekl River |
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| Project status | complete |
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