Sometimes a little change in wording can make a big difference when it comes to government decisions, and that’s certainly proving true when it comes to managing the water supply from Chapman Lake.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) infrastructure services committee spent about an hour of its July 7 meeting trying to agree on wording for when a siphon should be deployed to draw extra water from the lake.
The siphon system is the SCRD’s interim solution to cope with potential drought conditions while it awaits the go-ahead from the province for a $5-million project to create a deep outlet channel.
General manager of infrastructure services Bryan Shoji went to the committee asking for authorization to use the siphon to “maintain water capacity at Stage 3 levels.” But some directors on the committee felt the SCRD should hold back until the water supply drops to the point of calling Stage 4 restrictions (a ban on all outdoor water use, including agriculture).
“What I see here is what amounts to a policy decision to maintain Stage 3 rather than go to Stage 4 as we did last year,” said Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell. “I think Stage 4 is onerous, for a number of reasons, but it was manageable last year.”
Gibsons director Silas White said he worries about the message the SCRD would send by agreeing to use what amounts to an emergency measure to avoid Stage 4. “It doesn’t seem to be prioritizing conservation any more as our first strategy.”
Frank Mauro of Area A took a slightly different view. “Stage 4 is still required, if it’s an emergency. In my experience, any operational plan has an emergency mode,” said Mauro. “The emergency mode is something you strive to plan to avoid getting into.”
“It should be [deployed] in Stage 3, but not utilized until staff feel that we’re at a point where we’d have to go to Stage 4,” said SCRD chair, and Area B director, Garry Nohr. “We trusted [staff’s judgment] last year. We’ve got to trust them again this year.”
Lebbell put forward a motion to amend the recommendation to “maintain water capacity at Stage 4 levels,” but could not get enough support around the committee table, so the recommendation will go to the July 14 SCRD board meeting unchanged.
The July 7 committee meeting was also the first time directors got a look at the estimated costs of using the siphon system.
“I think this is the first time the board has been presented with the actual costs, and we have expended already $154,000 to purchase the materials,” Shoji told the committee. “And we estimate it will be $123,000, plus contingency, to install the siphon.”
The biggest line item in the installation cost is $65,000 to pay for helicopters to get the material and crews up to the lake. Shoji said SCRD staff would be back with a formal budget request if the siphon system needs to be deployed. Running it would cost an estimated $15,000 a week (which includes labour, materials, equipment, transportation, and third-party environmental monitoring).
The committee also endorsed adding $125,425 to the budget for the Chapman Lake expansion project to cover the costs of new environmental studies being required by the province for a parks use permit (Chapman Lake is in Tetrahedron Provincial Park) and a new water licence.
An Alternative Approval Process to get voter consent for a long-term loan for the project closes at 4:30 p.m. on July 26. The SCRD has said it will use a short-term loan, which doesn’t require voter approval, if the AAP fails.
