Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors are coming out highly critical of a proposed plan to harvest more than 700,000 litres of water per year from streams that flow into Jervis Inlet.
The board received a staff report last Thursday (Nov. 18) outlining the plan and a request for comments on it from the Integrated Land Management Bureau (ILMB), which must decide whether or not to grant the licence.
The plan is being proposed by a numbered company in partnership with the Kwiakah First Nation near Campbell River. If approved, the company will use portable hoses to draw water from seven streams that flow into the inlet and transfer it via tanker to a bottling plant in Vancouver.
The staff report and directors noted that harvesting water for commercial sale runs contrary to the SCRD's sustainability policy and several motions the board has passed discouraging the use of bottled water. The report states that allowing the water harvesting would create no local jobs and would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation and manufacturing of bottles.
The board, however, held off on sending a letter to the ILMB rejecting the plan until it had a chance to confirm that the Sechelt Indian Band had no interest in the project.
The board is expecting to address this issue again and prepare comments for the ILMB at the Dec. 9 planning meeting.
The company currently has 24 applications for commercial water extraction for bottled water pending decisions from the ILMB.
Fire bylaws
The SCRD is looking to make some serious changes to its fire protection bylaws, but not without getting some feedback from the public first.
Directors reviewed the proposed updated bylaws, some of which are designed to bring local bylaws in line with new provincial regulations, at a committee meeting last Thursday.
Changes include: no campfires/beachfires above the high tide mark, no fires closer than 10 metres to a building or combustible materials, no fires closer than five metres from a private property line, and a competent person must be present with appropriate tools and water.
Any bylaw changes the board may pass will apply only within the Gibsons/West Howe Sound, Roberts Creek and Halfmoon Bay fire protection districts.
See the proposed changes at www.scrd.ca.
