Directors on the SCRD’s infrastructure committee made the right move last week when they voted to include $350,000 for the third phase of a reservoir study in the next budget round.
Sunshine Coast residents have been sending a strong message to the SCRD since at least 2015 to get on with expanding the regional water supply, and the most obvious solution was neatly summed up last week in the PowerPoint presentation by consultant Integrated Sustainability under the heading of “Project Drivers:”
"• Diversion of water to a reservoir during periods of high precipitation and high creek flow (wet season)."
"• Use of reservoir water during periods of low precipitation (dry season).”
In a place with a very long wet season, it really is a simple concept.
No doubt it will be expensive. At this point, the most promising option would involve enlarging one of two alpine lakes situated southwest of Chapman Lake; it could be done in five months for under $10 million, based on preliminary estimates.
A minority of directors argued the board should hold off, either to take a fresh look at the regional water plan or because they had already agreed to spend $300,000 from reserves to pursue a well field on Church Road in Granthams Landing, a source that could halve the water supply deficit at a third of the cost, at least on paper.
Fortunately, the majority disagreed. Shíshálh Nation Coun. Keith Julius, the director with the most experience at the board table, said in effect that he had heard it all before and further delay would be a backward step. Chair Lori Pratt affirmed, “The community has been very clear” about “the need to go ahead with this decision.”
More than a year ago, Coun. Julius pointed out to the previous board the full extent of the region’s water supply needs, based in part on the Nation’s development plans that do not figure into SCRD calculations: “We need more than what we’ve been discussing with the reservoir, the siphon, the channel, these wells – we actually need far more,” he said.
Building capacity beyond minimum need does not mean abandoning conservation efforts. Residents have demonstrated a willingness to conserve water during dry spells – but they also know that they live on the edge of a temperate rainforest and they draw the line at sacrificing vegetable gardens and personal hygiene due to local government mismanagement.
Drawing deeper into Chapman Lake is no longer an option after B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman rejected the SCRD’s ill-fated drawdown proposal in early February. That sets the stage for the SCRD to aggressively push for diversifying its water supply, since critical shortages have become the well-publicized norm on the Sunshine Coast, and to call loudly on the province and Ottawa for grant funding and regulatory support.
Onward is most definitely the word.
