Water issues are serious, ongoing

Editor: The Salmon River Enhancement Society (SRES) would like to thank The Times for its excellent coverage of our Oct. 22 water forum.

For those who did not attend, we invite you to visit the Salmon River website www.salmonriver.org. On the website we have posted background information about water issues and the Hopington aquifer, along with our suggestions to strengthen the Township Water Management Plan (WMP).

SRES feels that the WMP is a step in the right direction but is not enough to solve our water problems. Therefore we have asked Langley Township council candidates to suggest improvements to the WMP. We will post the candidates’ answers on the website prior to our environmental all-candidates meeting on Monday, Nov. 10 in Fort Langley.

To summarize our water problems briefly is difficult. However, as Pogo said “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

r We lose water to evaporation when we water lawns and farm fields, or if we use groundwater for pools and ponds.

r Water escapes in streams and ditches from both artesian wells and pumped wells, if the water is not directed back into the ground.

r Dropping water tables in the surrounding area (Milner, Aldergrove and the area around the freeway at 240 Street) drain water from the Hopington aquifer.

r Nitrate levels increase (nitrates have been above public health levels at times) when the provincial government fails to regulate and enforce manure management.

r Nitrates also rise when, despite the moratorium on development over the Hopington area, the municipality does nothing about a mushrooming number of illegal suites increasing the septic load.

r Arsenic becomes a problem when our shallow wells go dry and we have to drill deeper wells.

B.C. is behind the rest of North America in developing an effective act to protect groundwater. Enforcement is poor, due to a lack of will and a severe lack of personnel in the field.

Over the last 10 years, governments have allowed the water table to drop another 10 feet while they have studied the problem but have done little “on the ground.”

The river and private wells are suffering. We cannot continue to let the water table drop. We must restore the water table to where it was 10 or 15 years ago to protect the river and protect private wells.

We must have an effective provincial groundwater act, we must improve enforcement and we must improve the WMP. Most of all, we must stop looking to others to solve the problem and instead work together to enable action “on the ground” quickly.

Doug McFee, director,

Salmon River Enhancement Society