Nitrates commission to avoid 'finger pointing'

Armand Desroches, the chair of the new commission looking at the problem of nitrates in P.E.I.'s groundwater, says the problem is clear and his group will focus on solutions.

"The other groups and the other studies that have been done, I understand, have been done mostly to identify the problem. We know there is a problem now," Desroches told CBC News on Monday.

"The commission will not be finger pointing. We will not be pointing at the farmers or anyone else as the people who are responsible for this. Our function and our aim is to look at solutions that includes everyone."

Desroches said the commission will ask for submissions from agriculture and environment groups and from the potato processing sector. It will report back to Premier Robert Ghiz in June 2008.

Desroches said he hopes the committee's work will help formulate new policy, but he noted its recommendations will not be binding.

The plan for a commission was first put forward in April, when a joint provincial-federal study found levels of nitrates in Island drinking water were getting higher.