Editor:
Following the SCRD’s request, the B.C. Minister of Environment will soon have a choice to make about whether or not to change the status of Tetrahedron Provincial Park and its protection of the Chapman watershed.
Back in the 1990s, I was on the board of the Granthams Landing Improvement District (GLID) – the volunteer organization charged with fresh water distribution to the community. GLID was land rich and cash poor. Our pump station could not keep up with the amount of water coming from the aquifer. It was constantly overflowing into the ocean. I remember one meeting where we tossed around the revenue-generating idea of having a tanker truck pull up on Marine Drive to fill up with our delicious aquifer water.
Sometime after the 2000 Walkerton, Ont. scare, GLID’s overflowing fresh water resource, associated facilities and million-dollar land assets were handed to the SCRD.
The SCRD has known for over 20 years that alternatives to Chapman Lake were needed to accommodate future population growth. Twenty years have gone by. What alternatives have been fully explored?
It is wasteful to spend five million taxpayer dollars to install facilities that enable draining the level of Chapman Lake by 25 feet. That would jeopardize our water quality and it would do absolutely nothing to address the drinking water needs associated with our population growth.
What about a huge potable water storage tank? Maybe a tanker truck could haul Granthams water to fill the storage tank year round. We need to develop capture and storage solutions.
Leave Tetrahedron Provincial Park in its pristine state – doing the job of enhancing the quality of Chapman Lake water.
Doug Marteinson, Granthams Landing
