Editor:
I first got involved in protecting drinking water on the Sunshine Coast in 2007 when I joined a blockade holding off clearcut logging on the steep, forested slopes above Chapman Creek. Chapman Creek delivers water from Chapman Lake to the SCRD water treatment plant and supplies about 24,000 residents of the Coast with drinking water. Logging would have trashed the Creek and our water supply. When a legal injunction forced activists off the blockade, a small group of us defied it. Logging stopped, a series of protests were sparked and the Coast community rallied behind the SCRD to protect our watershed.
Since then, I’ve commiserated with SCRD directors as they grapple with how to provide enough clean water to supply us all. After many long years, I am thrilled to see the SCRD finally acting to implement a diverse array of water system upgrades. These include more storage, diversification of supply, water metering, an emergency siphon system, infrastructure upgrades and hopefully, a rainwater harvesting rebate pilot program.
However, there is also a really bad water project being considered by SCRD, that needs to be stopped. The Chapman Lake Expansion Project (CLEP) is nothing more than a $5-million Band-Aid and a huge waste of taxpayers’ money. As well, the CLEP would degrade natural ecosystems and infrastructure and erode the integrity of Tetrahedron Provincial Park.
I applaud director Lorne Lewis and SCRD chair Bruce Milne for recognizing that the CLEP is a bad idea and focusing on viable, sustainable water projects. While it doesn’t surprise me that the Town of Gibsons wants the CLEP, director Mark Lebbell’s support for it is very disappointing. It seems some of the younger politicians we elected in 2014 are not as progressive as we thought they were.
Suzanne Senger, Gibsons
