The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) plans to take out a loan to cover the $4.23-million cost of lowering the channel at Chapman Lake. This is an emergency expenditure because the increased capacity is needed to prevent another Stage 4 outdoor watering ban if we get a repeat of last year’s supply shortage. It’s not a sure thing, however, as the public will have to green-light the loan under the Alternative Approval Process, whereby 10 per cent of electors plus one can force a referendum.
While this is going on, the SCRD is plowing ahead with a $5.5-million water meter installation project for rural areas, after receiving grant approvals from the provincial and federal governments last year (coincidentally, around the same time the SCRD declared Stage 4 restrictions). This money is certain, along with the $2 million in reserves the SCRD will contribute to the total.
The SCRD’s regional water plan was adopted, and the grants for the water meter project were applied for, prior to last year’s emergency. SCRD staff say the grants have to be used for water meters, but staff are not elected officials; politicians know that if circumstances change, and an emergency like last year’s water panic occurs, they can go back to the province and the feds at the political level and ask for the funds to be repurposed. The SCRD would have a strong case, based on what happened in 2015.
Since August of last year, our letters pages have seen an energetic debate on the pros and cons of water meters. This week, Coast Reporter’s Sean Eckford talks with credible experts in Quebec who cite research that contradicts many of the claims made by consultants to sell the SCRD on residential water meters. Yes, usage drops after water meters are installed, but that benefit is short-lived as volumes return to previous levels after a year or two, according to studies. Water meters also hit low-income people hardest, as well as families and year-round residents. The critics also say that residential meters are the least cost-effective way to identify leaks in the system. While many residents have raised similar objections, SCRD officials have been unwilling to revisit the issue or explore the possibility that they, and not their critics, need to be “educated” on the subject.
Regardless of the relative merits of metering, there is the separate issue of timing. We faced an unacceptable situation last summer – almost running out of water in a temperate rainforest. The SCRD has identified a short-term fix but currently doesn’t have the money to get the job done. Yet it does have millions to spend on installing water meters, which should be a lower priority after last year.
The worst thing that could happen is we end up with water meters but no emergency backup – and then a drought strikes again.
That’s the gamble the SCRD is taking.
