Nanaimo Emergency Boil Water Advisory: The Mid Island chapter of the Council of Canadians and Vancouver Island Water Watch are calling for public ownership and control of the Nanaimo community drinking watershed.
For years the Mid Island chapter of the Council of Canadians and Vancouver Island Water Watch have been saying that the City of Nanaimo and the Nanaimo Regional District should own the community drinking watershed and the land surrounding Jump Lake. Thursday’s emergency boil water advisory is a prime example of why.
Here is the emergency message sent by the city: "This is the City of Nanaimo Emergency Alert system. Due to high turbidity levels, by request of VIHA Nanaimo Environmental Health Office (EHO), the City of Nanaimo has issued a Boil Water Notice for the City of Nanaimo Water System. Please tune to 102.3 FM for further information and updates, or phone 250-758-5222."
Both organizations supported the creation of ‘Troubled Water’ a film produced and directed by Paul Manly, which examines the threat to community drinking watersheds on Vancouver Island. The film can be viewed for free on the Manly Media youtube channel. There are many important lessons in this film that the City of Nanaimo and the Regional District could learn from.
In 1993, Manly trespassed into the Victoria and CRD (Capital Regional District) community drinking watershed at Sooke lake to videotape and expose the damage done by logging, which at the time was causing major turbidity problems and boil water advisories in Victoria. Turbidity is caused by soil erosion and run-off and is typical in areas that have had road building and clear-cuts. Turbidity requires additional use of chlorine and the interaction between the two can cause carcinogenic byproducts. The exposé Manly produced led to a moratorium on logging in the watershed that is now permanent. The CRD water district let the Sooke Lake watershed forests grow back to a natural state and now they save millions in treatment costs because they know that a mature forest is the best filtration system for water.
In the film, Jack Hull, the General Manager of Integrated Water Services at the Capital Regional District in Victoria (now retired) explains the CRD’s approach to watershed management. “We control what happens in the watershed. It’s managed from the perspective of providing drinking water. So we don’t allow any industrial or commercial type activities at the watershed. Our treatment costs are very low because we control what happens in the watershed; we have a very high-quality water source.”
Victoria bought the land surrounding the Sooke Lake 100 years ago but the CRD recently purchased the Leech River watershed and are letting it grow back to a natural state so they can use it as a future water supply as the population in the region grows.
“By purchasing the Leech we’re able to restore it to its natural condition so that we’re not going to see those major turbidity spikes in the river – the sediment loads. And in the future when we need the water we’ll be able to continue with the current approach to treating the water that we already have.” said Hull
Nanaimo's watershed is privately owned by two forest companies, Island Timberlands and Timber West, which both actively log in the community drinking watershed. Road construction and logging are the main cause of excessive run-off, erosion and the resulting turbidity in our water. ‘Troubled Water’ has a section that examines the Nanaimo watershed, the use of contaminated fertilizer 15 years ago and why this should be a publicly owned and controlled asset.
While working on another film, ‘Voices of the River’, Manly met with and talked to some of the local people who work for Island Timberlands and Timber West and are responsible for the logging activity in our watershed. “They are good people who live in our community.” said Manly. “They drink the same water and they don’t want to drink turbid water or water contaminated with fertilizer anymore than the rest of us but they are only employees and have no real control over what the corporations they work for do".
"We should be concerned about the ownership and control of our watershed, whether the companies are doing their best or not,” said Manly, The Shawnigan Lake situation will show you why.” The watershed land in the headwaters of Shawnigan lake used to be owned by a German Prince who believed in sustainable logging practices and environmental stewardship. When he sold the land, it was all immediately clear-cut and then parceled up into smaller chunks. Now there are many landowners, engaged in many activities, including four mining operations, one of which has applied for and received a permit from the Ministry of the Environment to fill their rock quarry with toxic contaminated soil. This contaminated soil dump will be as close as 15 meters from Shawnigan creek, the main tributary to Shawnigan lake, the drinking water supply for 12,000 people. “ If you don’t think it can happen here, ask the people from Shawnigan Lake… they wouldn't have believed this 15 years ago!" said Manly.
The Mid Island Chapter of the Council of Canadians have been gathering signatures on a petition which they will be presenting to City Council and the RDN in the New Year. It reads as follows; Therefore your petitioners respectfully request that the City of Nanaimo and the Nanaimo Regional district, work with First Nations, senior levels of government and the current land-owners to begin a process to purchase or expropriate the Nanaimo community drinking watershed and properly protect it for community drinking water purposes now and for future generations, starting with the most important areas including the creeks and valleys above the Jump Lake reservoir, eliminating all industrial and other activity that is not essential to the maintenance of a pristine, secure source of drinking water.
“Water is our most important community asset,” said Manly who is also the BC Yukon regional chapter representative on the national board of the Council of Canadians. “If we don’t have control of our watershed, we don’t have control of our local economy. A clean, secure source of drinking water is crucial to the health of citizens and to the economy of a community. It’s ridiculous that a community this size would have a boil water advisory. The public should own and control the community drinking watershed.”
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For further information contact:
Paul Manly
Council of Canadians
paulmanly@shaw.ca
250 729-1254
