Editor:
With severe Stage 4 water restrictions, Chapman Creek, where it touches the Salish Sea, is a bed of hot, dry boulders with small amounts of trickling water. It is our water source starting high in the Tetrahedron and is also the lifeblood of the salmon that feed eagles, bears and orcas.
It is not our right to drain it dry solely for our needs. And it is an error to continue a colonial mindset that we can just go to another stream like Clowhom or drill another aquifer and drain it down to the last drop.
Another layer of reconciliation for me calls to repairing our broken respect with all our relations – the forest, the salmon, the bears, eagles, orcas and each other. The UN declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation, recognizing that economic health depends on preserving water resources together.
A time of challenge like we are in now is also a time for new opportunities to be creative and do things differently, both at the personal and collective level. Imagine with cooperation and innovation we repair the land together. Let’s take the mine site and create reservoirs and lakes and wetlands (Calgary does it all the time in new housing districts). Let’s work with nature to reconcile and restore health and integrity to the landscape so all our water needs are met, including those of the salmon, bear, eagle and orca.
Denise Lagassé, Halfmoon Bay
