Editor:
To Garry Nohr and Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), re Chapman Lake and domestic water supply:
First of all the B.C. provincial government has little to no environmental credibility to determine what is correct for our use of Chapman watershed. The SCRD must take the lead, as B.C. has not seen fit to protect watersheds, wild fish or environmental integrity for some time.
The provincial government over decades, through the Ministry of Forests and more recently the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has delisted Sunshine Coast watersheds to allow forestry activities to carry on, by fresh water and other than timber forest values, like wild mushrooms.
Some of those activities include harvesting beyond sustainable levels and aerial chemical fertilizer applications.
The effect of these policies has been to narrow the fresh water options for domestic water, wild fish and wildlife ecology.
There is some catch-up to be done in the Chapman River watershed; it must be honoured for its other values.
SCRD waterworks at Chapman Falls must be rehabilitated. In most places Chapman Falls would be a valuable community feature, not an unlikely or hazardous place to visit.
Tetrahedron Provincial Park must be valued for the effort to conserve it, by many, with much local effort, over decades.
Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) is at the core of these conserving efforts and created to uphold Sunshine Coast ecology for the future. They are far from a minority, but a well-founded and dedicated organization that has the knowledge and ethical credibility to help solve issues like this over the long term.
I recommend that the council of SCCA and many others be a guiding principle for SCRD water management.
John R. Dafoe, Halfmoon Bay
