Editor:
I have just received our property tax notice and the deadline for our SCRD utility bill is nearing. It looks like we are being charged twice for our water. Ours is $266 on the utility bill and $268 on property tax for a total of $574 annually.
We do our part. We have installed eight rainwater barrels, do not water our lawn, always use shut-offs while using outdoor hoses, etc. We do, however, have a vegetable garden and fruit trees and bushes to grow as much of our own food as possible, and would like to water when needed. Again this summer, I’m sure we’ll be facing more water restrictions, which seems ludicrous given the good winter snow pack and the extremely wet winter and spring. Every winter provides an abundance of fresh water if we just collected it.
Do you know where Chapman Lake is? On top of Tetrahedron Plateau at the 1,000-metre elevation. Who decided this? Plus it’s in a provincial park with its related problems. Logically thinking, a reservoir should collect from a large watershed. Why not build a dam or a series of dams on lower sections of the Chapman watershed – for that matter, how about McNair or Rainy Rivers? I don’t like unnecessary devastation of countryside and forests, but we all benefit from infrastructure built many years ago (not as much red tape) and we need water.
It basically rains here from September/October until April. We live in one of the wettest places on earth. Taking our $575 amount as an average, and the fact that there are 12,800 households here, this works out to $7.3 million collected annually by the SCRD for our water. I think this amount of annual funds could be used usefully towards a real solution for our water woes, not just Band-Aid fixes.
Should we put restrictions on our payments?
Brian Klassen, Halfmoon Bay
