On Merville groundwater extraction it’s deja vu all over again

On Merville groundwater extraction it’s deja vu all over again

by | Jan 12, 2023

Electoral area directors deferred amended application to a future meeting, want province to explain licensing rules

On Merville groundwater extraction it’s deja vu all over again

It was standing room only in the Comox Valley Regional District Civic Room on Jan. 9 as about 80 people squeezed into the Civic Room for the Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC) meeting.

This is an uncommon turnout for such meetings, but many people have uncommonly strong feelings about protecting shared local water resources.

After the new EASC chair and vice-chair were acclaimed (Richard Hardy and Edwin Grieve, respectively), and Ed Hoeppner made a presentation on Hornby Island’s composting toilet residuals, the committee heard from Bruce Gibbons, the tireless leader of the Merville Water Guardians, opposing yet another iteration of Scott MacKenzie and Regula Heynck’s application to extract groundwater at 2400 and 2410 Sackville Road.

“It was, and still is, obvious that the residents, farmers and elected officials of the Comox Valley do not want the water from the Comox Valley aquifer to be extracted and sold for commercial profit.”  — Bruce Gibbons, January 9

As we reminded you last week, way back in 2017 MacKenzie and Heynck received a conditional license from the province to extract water for bottling. Their 2018 zoning amendment application to the CVRD board, requesting that the Board add “water bottling” to the list of permitted uses on the property, was denied.

The initial conditional license was supposed to expire Dec.31, 2020, if the project wasn’t up and running by then. As Gibbons explained, “On January 4th, 2021, … I was told the licensee would be given 30 days notice and then the cancellation process would commence.”

However, it was never cancelled. As noted in the CVRD staff report on the matter: “In 2022, the applicant applied to the province to amend the above-noted conditional water licence to change the purpose of the water use from ‘industrial (fresh water bottling)’ to ‘waterworks (water sales and water delivery).’”

The CVRD staff report prepared for the meeting recommended that the amended application, which would essentially accept this enterprise as a “home occupation” under OCP bylaws, be accepted: “The activities of bulk water treatment, storage, transport, and sales are permitted on the subject property, under conditions of a Home Occupation which is a permitted accessory use within the subject property’s Rural Eight (RU-8) zone.”

“We can’t live without water”

Gibbons reminded the committee of the recent droughts experienced on Vancouver Island:
• Total rainfall from July 4th to Oct 22nd was 7.8 mm; normal is 155 mm.
• A Stage 4 drought was declared for East Vancouver Island again from mid-September to mid-October 2021, and a Stage 5 drought from mid-October to early November.
• Total rainfall for October was 22.2 mm. The normal is 122.8 mm. October is historically one of our wettest months of the year, so 18% of normal rainfall should be a serious concern.

“Combine these drought statistics with the rapidly and significantly receding Comox Glacier, and water security in the Comox Valley is at risk,” he said.

He wrapped up by imploring the committee to deny the application for the amendment to the original water license, which drew a standing ovation from the audience.

“The CVRD has been transparent, thoughtful, respectful and thorough” in handling this case, which has generated much interest from the public, said CVRD CAO Russell Dyson, after reminding attendees that the CVRD has jurisdiction only to regulate use and development on the surface of land; groundwater extraction and water licensing are a provincial matter.

What is a home occupation?

CVRD senior planner Jodi MacLean explained that the zoning bylaw doesn’t prohibit bulk water treatment, storage, transport, and sales on the subject property if it is designated as a home occupation.

Edwin Grieve stated that “We have an obligation to follow our own zoning,” but questioned why the K’ómoks First Nation had not been consulted on this latest amendment. “I’m very underwhelmed by the [lack of] support we’re getting from our provincial government,” he said, referring both to this matter and the issue of ship-breaking in Royston.

Director Daniel Arbour questioned whether staff were taking too broad a view. If carried to extremes, he wondered, “Could a nuclear facility be considered a home occupation?” under this kind of interpretation.

He was being facetious, but the point was made. He listed a number of activities that are explicitly acceptable on RU-8 properties like MacKenzie and Heynck’s: agricultural use, plant nursery and greenhouse, riding academy, etc. “I see water processing as a much more industrial/commercial kind of activity that has broader impacts,” he commented.

Dyson noted that a home occupation is general in nature, and that the CVRD could get a legal opinion on the matter.

MacKenzie allowed to speak

Toward the end of the discussion, Scott MacKenzie, who was participating remotely, was invited to speak, to the initial displeasure of Gibbons and the audience (MacKenzie had not made an official delegation request).

MacKenzie’s remarks included the words “bias and slander,” “defrauded,” “coercion,” “lynching,” and “outraged,” as well as a demand for Edwin Grieve to recuse himself.

The committee voted unanimously to defer the matter to a future meeting of the EASC to obtain a legal opinion regarding the definition of home occupation and to request the province of BC to come before the committee to explain its role and responsibility regarding water extraction. The EASC directors also want to confirm the position of K’ómoks First Nation on the amendment.

 

 

 

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Merville water bottling issue returns to the CVRD, highlights provincial water policies

Merville water bottling issue returns to the CVRD, highlights provincial water policies

by | Jan 5, 2023

The Merville issue is about land use but draws attention to outdated provincial water policies

Merville water bottling issue returns to the CVRD, highlights provincial water policies

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The long-awaited rain finally began to fall on Vancouver Island this week, but it’s the drought that extended from summer through fall that has geologists, water system managers and homeowners who depend on wells worried about our groundwater supplies.

The driest fall in decades shut down the BC Hydro power generator on the Puntledge River for the first time in more than a half-century. Mt. Washington aquifers were so depleted, the resort asked skiers not to bathe and bring their own drinking water.

All around the world, and particularly in the American southwest, water shortages have reached dire levels. And that will ultimately concern Comox Valley residents when California and Mexico can no longer supply us with abundant fruits and vegetables.

If this trend continues – and an irreversible climate change insures that it will – we will need Island farmers to fill that gap, which in turn means a higher demand for groundwater supplies by local agriculture.

What this all adds up to is that water for drinking and growing food are destined to become the center of controversial public policy. Who has access? How will water supplies be rationed equitably?

That debate will take center stage at Monday’s meeting (Jan. 9, 2023) of the Electoral Services Commission when regional directors consider an amended application for a water bottling and distribution operation in Merville.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) – now known as Land Water and Resource Stewardship (LWS) – issued a conditional water license nearly five years ago to Christopher Scott MacKenzie and Reugla Heynck. The license permitted the couple to extract up to 10,000 litres of groundwater per day on their Sackville Road property.

The license required the couple to “make beneficial use of the license” by Dec. 31, 2020. But when the Comox Valley Regional District denied a rezoning application to vary existing land use regulations, it stopped the couple’s original business plan.

Bruce Gibbons, the founder of the Merville Water Guardians that opposes this groundwater extraction, learned last April that LWS had received an application to amend the couple’s water license. The ministry referred the application for an amendment to the Comox Valley Regional District to determine if the amended purpose of the license would now meet existing bylaw and zoning requirements.

Neither the LWS nor the CVRD has disclosed the details of the application for amendment. But sources within the regional district say the issue will be on the agenda for the Jan. 9 Electoral Areas Service Commission (EASC), which would normally be released on Friday, Jan. 6 before the meeting.

Our sources also say that the regional district staff has passed the application to amend the water license on to the K’omoks First Nation and other affected groups, and also that the Merville Water Guardians will make a presentation at the same meeting.

The extent of the regional district’s authority in this issue is limited to its land use regulations. Does the proposed amended use meet current zoning laws? It cannot rule based on the larger issue of protecting groundwater supplies or other universal water issues.

MacKenzie is perfectly within his rights to pursue the use of the water license he was given by the provincial government.

That said, some serious questions should be asked of the LWS ministry why an application to amend his license was accepted and why his license remains valid nearly two years after not complying with the major condition of his original license.

And given the acceleration of climate change causing water crises all over the world, doesn’t it seem prudent, even urgent for our provincial government to put a moratorium on issuing any new groundwater extraction licenses and to suspend the licenses that haven’t been activated?

Knowing the difficult political and ethical discussions looming over provincial water policies, the government must initiate a full-scale review of our approach to water that reflects our new reality. To do otherwise will open a deluge of trouble.

 

There are numerous citizen action groups focused on water, including the Canadian Freshwater Alliance, which has supported the work of the Merville Water Guardians. There is also the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition. Here’s a link to some others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 WATER FACTS

Compared to today, five times as much land is likely to be under “extreme drought” by 2050.

Unless measures are taken, California will demand three times more groundwater than can be supplied over the next 100 years.

By 2035, the world’s energy consumption will increase by 35 percent, which in turn will increase water use by 15 percent according to the International Energy Agency.

In 2050 increased population will result in a 19% increase in agricultural water consumption.

Water demand is projected to grow by 55 percent by 2050 (including a 400-percent rise in manufacturing water demand).

According to satellite images, the Colorado River Basin has lost about 65 cubic kilometers (15.6 cubic miles) of water from 2004 to 2013. This is twice the amount stored in Lake Mead.

For decades the Ogallala Aquifer in the United States, one of the world’s largest aquifers, has tapped at rates thousands of times greater than it is being restored.

Over the past 40 years the world’s population has doubled and use of water has quadrupled.

According to the U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment of Global Water Security, by 2030 humanity’s “annual global water requirements” will exceed “current sustainable water supplies” by 40%.

By the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today.

Source: Seametrics.com

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Island and BC coastal communities say “ban groundwater licenses”

Island and BC coastal communities say “ban groundwater licenses”

by | Apr 14, 2019

Bruce and Nicole Gibbons, photograph from their Facebook page

Island and BC coastal communities say “ban groundwater licenses”

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Representatives of 53 municipalities on Vancouver Island and the British Columbia coast have endorsed a Comox Valley initiative for the province to stop issuing licenses for the bottling and commercial sale of groundwater.

Meeting this week in Powell River, the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, which includes Comox Valley municipalities, passed the resolution unanimously.

The motion now moves to the Union of BC Municipalities for consideration at its annual meeting during the week of Sept. 23 in Vancouver. If it is supported by a majority of provincial municipalities, the resolution would be sent to the BC government for action.

Bruce Gibbons, of the Merville Water Guardians who originated the initiative, called the AVICC vote “a huge victory.”

“That (the unanimous vote) means that the 53 member communities of the AVICC unanimously support the ask of that resolution, and ultimately the protection of groundwater,” he said.

Gibbons praised Strathcona Regional District Director Brenda Leigh for championing the resolution. The SRD passed a similar motion in February requesting the province cease groundwater exports for commercial water bottling and bulk water sales.

“There are 29 regional districts in British Columbia, and a lot of them have been impacted by corporate extraction of their water supply,” said Leigh. “This is very important because the commodification of water in Canada means that we’re putting our water sources at risk.”

Groundwater extraction and water bottling rose to public attention last year at the Comox Valley Regional District. Merville landowners Scott MacKenzie and his wife, Regula Heynck, obtained a license from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource and Rural Development (FLNRORD) to extract up to 10,000 litres per day or 3.65 million litres per year.

But the CVRD ultimately denied MacKenzie and Heynck an application to rezone their property on Sackville Road to conduct water bottling operations as the principal use of their property.

MacKenzie and Heynck then approached the Strathcona Regional District and were denied again.

The struggle between FLNRORD and the Comox Valley Regional District highlighted the friction between regional districts and the BC government over groundwater extraction for profit. The dispute began when FLNRORD MacKenzie a license without public notification and against the wishes of the CVRD and K’omoks First Nation.

But there was considerable public opposition to the license, and the CVRD denial effectively rendered the license unusable.

Leigh said her motion is rooted in general principle, and not in reaction to the CVRD dispute.

She says changes to the provincial Water Sustainability Act would negate the need for district-level efforts to control commercial water extraction with zoning decisions.

“First things first – we need to get the province on our side, and make sure they’re protecting our water. They have the power to do that.”

Some areas in Leigh’s district, which includes the north Oyster River area, rely totally on groundwater. In recent summers, drought conditions in August have forced the district to tap emergency reservoirs.

She anticipates climate change will exacerbate the problem in the future.

Watershed Sentinel Assistant Editor Gavin McRae contributed to this article

 

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Merville water bottling issue returns to the CVRD, highlights provincial water policies

Comox Valley man working AVICC to ban groundwater extraction

by | Apr 12, 2019

Photo Caption

Comox Valley man working AVICC to ban groundwater extraction

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Vancouver Island Groundwater Rights Update Water rights advocate Bruce Gibbons is on a mission to end licensing of groundwater extraction for bottled water on Vancouver Island. And if that goes well, for all of BC.

Gibbons is burning shoe leather and working the phone to encourage all 53 districts and municipalities in the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities (AVICC) to support an upcoming motion requesting the provincial government stop issuing well licenses to bottle water. If the motion passes, it heads to a province-wide vote at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

Gibbons said preventing groundwater bottling is a “no brainer” for many coastal communities, and several town councils have voted to support the AVICC motion on-the-spot after listening to his presentation.

The other half of Gibbons’ two-pronged approach is to ensure that there is a back-up if the AVICC motion fails. Gibbons discovered most towns need to amend the language of their bylaws if they want to prevent commercial bottling of groundwater, and he’s encouraging them
to do so

“When people wrote bylaws for their communities, they weren’t thinking of bottling water, so in most cases it’s not an actual conscious decision to allow it or not allow it,” he said. “[Communities] look at their bylaws and say ‘well it looks like if it came down to a decision, this
particular bylaw would allow it because it doesn’t expressly prohibit it,’ so they’re finding themselves in a position where they need to revise their bylaws to expressly prohibit bottled water.”

According to Gibbons, a dozen AVICC communities now have bylaws on the books that specifically forbid bottling groundwater. Twenty five AVICC communities have bylaws that doallow groundwater bottling (several of these are working to amend their bylaws). The bylaw
status of the remaining communities is unknown.

AVICC communities have been largely supportive of Gibbons urging a review of old bylaws. The exception has been Langford, where Gibbons said planning officials were uncooperative and appeared confused by his request.

“It was just a really weird experience with them. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t believe in what I was doing. They just didn’t get it.”
He’s shaken off the minor failure and said regardless which way the AVICC vote goes, water rights in BC are advancing, and his campaign is worthwhile.

“When you get involved in something like this, you realize how many people there are who really devote a lot of time and energy to protecting our environment and the world we live in. It takes a lot of time and energy, but it’s a very positive thing.”

Gavin McRae is a reporter and assistant editor for the Watershed Sentinel, which is a publishing partner of Decafnation

 

“Brooklyn Creek is a small creekshed whose hydrology and ecological services have been altered and degraded by decades of land use impacts,” — Tim Pringle in the preface to Assessing the Worth of Ecological Services Using the Ecological Accounting Process for Watershed Assessment: Brooklyn Creek Demonstration Application in the Comox Valley.

 

 

WHAT IS THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS (EAP)?

Ecological Accounting Process — “The EAP approach begins by first recognizing the importance of a stream in a natural state and then asking: how can we maintain those ecological values while allowing the stream to be used for drainage,” says Jim Dumont, Engineering Applications Authority with the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

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Strathcona groundwater motion headed to AVICC vote

Strathcona groundwater motion headed to AVICC vote

by | Feb 7, 2019

Photo Caption

Strathcona groundwater motion headed to AVICC vote

By

The Strathcona Regional District has unanimously passed a motion requesting the province cease licensing groundwater for commercial water bottling and bulk water exports.

Currently, the motion applies only to the Strathcona Regional District, but will be heard again at an April meeting of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC).

If it is passed there, the motion will become island-wide, and again move upward to be considered as a unified request by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities. There is potential for all BC municipalities and districts to send an unambiguous message that would “put huge pressure on the provincial government to change the Water Sustainability Act (WSA),” said Brenda Leigh, Strathcona Regional District Area D director, and architect of the board’s Jan. 24 motion.

“There’s 29 regional districts in British Columbia, and a lot of them have been impacted by corporate extraction of their water supply,” said Leigh. “This is very important because the commodification of water in Canada means that we’re putting our water sources at risk.”

A 2018 struggle between the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource and Rural Development (FLNRORD), and the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) highlighted the friction between regional districts and the BC government over groundwater extraction for profit. The dispute began when FLNRORD approved a license for the commercial sale of groundwater, without public notification and against the wishes of the CVRD and K’omoks First Nation. Public opposition to the license was formidable, and the CVRD ultimately denied a zoning amendment necessary for the water to be processed, effectively rendering the license unusable.

Leigh said her motion is rooted in general principle, and not in reaction to the CVRD dispute. 

Changes to the WSA would negate the need for district-level efforts to control commercial water extraction with zoning decisions, said Leigh. “First things first – we need to get the province on our side, and make sure they’re protecting our water. They have the power to do that.”

Leigh was critical of the “first in time, first in right” principle guiding groundwater licensing in BC. “First in time, first in right, is about giving licenses to corporations to bottle the water, or sell it by bulk, and that is putting our aquifers at risk unless the local government knows how
it’s going to impact their citizens,” she said.

Some areas in Leigh’s district rely totally on groundwater. In recent summers, drought conditions in August have forced the district to tap emergency reservoirs. She anticipates climate change will exacerbate the problem in the future.

“It’s sort of a perfect storm,” she said.

Gavin MacRae is an editorial assistant of the Watershed Sentinel, a publishing partner of Decafnation. He may be reached at gavin@watershedsentinel.ca.

 

 

 

 

GROUNDWATER: OVERUSE AND DEPLETION

Groundwater is the largest source of usable, fresh water in the world. In many parts of the world, especially where surface water supplies are not available, domestic, agricultural, and industrial water needs can only be met by using the water beneath the ground.

The U.S. Geological Survey compares the water stored in the ground to money kept in a bank account. If the money is withdrawn at a faster rate than new money is deposited, there will eventually be account-supply problems. Pumping water out of the ground at a faster rate than it is replenished over the long-term causes similar problems.

Groundwater depletion is primarily caused by sustained groundwater pumping. Some of the negative effects of groundwater depletion:

Lowering of the Water Table
Excessive pumping can lower the groundwater table, and cause wells to no longer be able to reach groundwater.

Increased Costs
As the water table lowers, the water must be pumped farther to reach the surface, using more energy. In extreme cases, using such a well can be cost prohibitive.

Reduced Surface Water Supplies
Groundwater and surface water are connected. When groundwater is overused, the lakes, streams, and rivers connected to groundwater can also have their supply diminished.

Land Subsidence
Land subsidence occurs when there is a loss of support below ground. This is most often caused by human activities, mainly from the overuse of groundwater, when the soil collapses, compacts, and drops.

Water Quality Concerns
Excessive pumping in coastal areas can cause saltwater to move inland and upward, resulting in saltwater contamination of the water supply.

— Groundwater.org

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