Editor:
The presumptions about water meters are based on misinformation. There are better and cheaper ways of discovering leaks, both large and small, by using the latest mobile sensor equipment (a major leak in Gibsons was totally missed by a metered system).
The technology is affordable and requires a pickup truck and probably two trained technicians to check the whole water system, starting with the oldest areas and continuing on to later installations.
Perhaps the time has come for Sechelt to take over its own water supply, find a way to cooperate with the local band, maybe with an opportunity to utilize the heavy equipment from the pit to construct reservoirs outside the park areas, to be fed by more than Chapman Creek (which has millions of litres of water gushing out to sea every winter with no attempt to use it a resource). Excavating to draw water from the lake bottom instead of perhaps siphoning seems like a poor solution to extend the water supply.
Lower income people will be the most negatively impacted. Already the sprinklers are going for lawns, with large amounts on sidewalks. The obsessive-compulsive individuals are washing both vehicles in their driveway every weekend, whether they need it or not. Pressure washing has become a compulsion instead of using bucket and brush, etc. There is no insistence on new construction having grey water systems or rainwater tanks nor an embargo on development beyond single-family lots until adequate drought provisions are in place.
Watering should only be only once a day, in the morning, and grass watering other than turf farms should be banned at Stage 2.
D. Webb, Sechelt
