During an interview last Thursday for our Coast Beat podcast, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons splashed some cold water on the idea of pushing forward with the SCRD’s $5.5-million Chapman Lake drawdown scheme.
Simons said his government’s appetite for changing a Class A park to accommodate the expansion project is “probably not very strong, especially when you consider the fact that this would be an emergency measure only.”
That last part is the key to understanding this interminable debate. When the SCRD declared Stage 4 water restrictions last fall, banning all outdoor watering, it deployed a siphon as an emergency measure to prevent further loss of supply. The estimated setup cost was about $150,000 and the weekly operating cost was pegged at $15,000. The siphon was in use for about two weeks, until Oct. 19, when rains pounding the Sunshine Coast had recharged Chapman and Edward lakes and Stage 4 was finally lifted.
So – and this is the question we then posed to Simons – if the expansion project would be “an emergency measure only,” and the SCRD already has an emergency system in place with the siphon, is it wise to spend $5.5 million on another emergency measure when the supply issue is so grave?
“Let me answer that so I don’t upset too many people,” he said. “The supply issue is the issue. The siphon worked; it’s expensive, but it’s an emergency measure. We need a long-term, ongoing source of water – especially when you look at the number of building permits and the expectation of growth here. If we don’t have enough water now, what are we doing for the projected expansion of our population? So, I would like to see our resources, our shared resources going toward a longer term solution for the water situation here on the Lower Sunshine Coast.”
Later in the day, Sechelt mayor and SCRD chair Bruce Milne made essentially the same argument to the SCRD board, urging directors to abandon the drawdown plan and focus instead on building a reservoir within the shortest time frame possible.
There was still a lot of resistance around the table. There was also evidence of confused thinking, with one director warning that Stage 4 restrictions would be more frequent without the Chapman expansion in place, apparently ignoring the condition set out by shíshálh Nation that the drawdown would be used only after Stage 4 is in effect. Requests to staff for technical information on the reservoir and relevant timelines were at least two years late in coming, but better late than never.
We commend Simons and Milne for the clarity they’ve brought to this issue.
All that’s missing now is action.
