Summary of water forum November 09

We would also like to thank the 75 attendees who braved stormy weather to attend the Water Forum.  Several of the audience approached me after the forum to say that they had learned a lot. 

So what have we learned?  The concerns are:

1)  Coho numbers seem to be dropping after dry summers.  We need to do something soon. 

2)  The Township Water Management Plan is not enough to address the problem.  The WMP is more of an extended mission statement than an action plan. 

There are things, however, that can be done now.  We can no longer afford to wait for the province to act or use their lack of action as an excuse. 

The three big issues that could be addressed by local action are:

1)  Of the 2500 gallons per minute that local well driller Jim Clark suggests we are losing from the Hopington aquifer perhaps 40% or 500 million gallons per year is being wasted by uncapped artesian wells.  Incentives to encourage landowners to cap the 50 biggest artesian wells might significantly reduce losses at a reasonable expense.  

2)  80% of water use in the Hopington area is agricultural so we cannot stabilize the water table without quickly addressing this issue.  At the Water Forum Ted Van Der Gulik of the Ministry of Agriculture informed us that there are already Environmental Farm Plans that subsidize farmers to install more water efficient irrigation.  We may need to increase the incentives to encourage farmers but this could be done and could make a big difference. 

3)  We need pilot projects to infiltrate more rainwater into the ground.  Much of the rain runs off clay layers and is lost to the water table.  Alan Dakin told us at the 2008 Water Forum that there are innovative ideas that we can try.

The big questions are:

1)  Can we stabilize the water table in time to avoid permanent damage to the river?

2)  Can we use incentives and innovative methods to stabilize the water table without metering?  Our speakers told us that meters have been a big advantage elsewhere.   

To close our Water Forum Dr. Hans Schreier from UBC eloquently outlined what is at stake.  He pointed out that, despite problems, the Salmon River area is still one of the very few healthy watersheds in the Lower Mainland.  It is a jewel for the Township of Langley.  He suggested that we must act now but warned that we not look to development as the solution.  Development in areas such as Walnut Grove has made water worse, not better. 

Doug McFee

Director, Salmon River Enhancement Society