Skip to content

One water source not enough

Editor: It was very encouraging to see so many people attending the meeting about our Chapman Creek watershed, citizens and elected officials alike.

Editor:

It was very encouraging to see so many people attending the meeting about our Chapman Creek watershed, citizens and elected officials alike. A community of people who want to learn and be involved is always a sign that good, collective decisions can be made.

It became very clear to me, that as the population of the Coast continues to grow and create increasing demands for water, one watershed cannot adequately serve the population from Upper Gibsons to Secret Cove. Just the fact that it is a creek says a lot about its capacity. Using one watershed is literally having all of our eggs in one basket and makes us very vulnerable. What happens if blasting turns the lake into a mud bed, there is a forest fire or no snowpack one winter? 

Resiliency is built in diversity. As a Halfmoon Bay resident, I live on the Sechelt Peninsula. Does it continue to make sense for peninsula residents to have their water travel all the way from the Chapman Creek watershed? Are there lakes other than Trout Lake that could provide clean sources of water? Maybe even a Caren Range aquifer?

Considering the amount of money the SCRD is proposing to spend on water metering and blowing up a trench in Chapman Lake, it is time that we protect the integrity of the ecosystem by stopping all further logging in the watershed by AJB and viewing trees as the natural water storage systems that they are. A fresh and creative multi-pronged approach of grey water systems, cistern subsidies and respectfully tapping into different watersheds for the various districts on the Coast is a healthier, more forward thinking solution. That ultimately is the definition of resiliency.

Denise Lagasse, Halfmoon Bay