Editor:
Unfortunately, the water supply issue has the potential to deeply divide residents of our spectacular Sunshine Coast community. Luckily, we have been given time to find a best solution by the fortunate abundance of summer water this year. Secondly, BC Parks legally requires that the SCRD conduct proper environmental assessment and public information sessions before trenching Chapman Lake in Tetrahedron Park. Finally, the SCRD now has siphons on hand should we require emergency water supply. So let’s take a collective breath, listen to each other’s opinions and base decisions on facts and science, not fear.
For my part, I would like to add a biodiversity perspective to the debate. When we protect the natural world around us, then the natural assets like healthy forests and lakes provide us with cheap, clean, necessary ecosystem services like fresh water.
B.C. has met the UN policy that jurisdictions should protect at least 12 per cent of their natural ecosystems to maintain functional integrity of their environment. Yet in our Forest District, only about three per cent of our land base has been formally protected. So, ecologically we are already playing a dangerous game with our future.
Tetrahedron Provincial Park and Chapman Lake are at the heart of the small share of our district that has been protected. Over the years, literally thousands of Sunshine Coasters, including the SCRD, have struggled valiantly to maintain this natural base from which we draw most of our water. Yet the SCRD now proposes to draw down Chapman Lake up to 26 feet even before the Stage 4 emergency stage. This will surely gut the lake and negatively impact fish and wildlife habitat and precious water quality. I believe the SCRD needs to look beyond the Chapman Watershed and thoroughly study the potential of aquifers, residential water storage subsidies and reservoir locations.
George Smith, Gibsons
