A
t the time B.C.'s
Water Act was
written, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier was prime
minister and Ty Cobb was still
the home-run king. A lot has
changed since 1909, of course:
B.C.'s population has grown
from 350,000 to over 4.6 mil-
lion, while the level of industrial
activity has taken off. Now, cli-
mate change is putting further
pressure on what the provincial
government describes as B.C.'s
"most precious resource."
And while, on a global scale,
B.C. is water rich, we're also
water hogs. Regions including
the Okanagan and the Peace
River have seen water resources
taxed to the limit by the
demands of a thirsty population
and industry. For the past sev-
eral summers, community mem-
bers in the Cowichan Valley on
Vancouver Island have had to
transport salmon by trucks up
the trickling Cowichan River to
save spawning chinook. "This
sort of thing, I think, is probably
going to happen a lot more fre-
quently—having very dry peri-
ods during the summer where
surface water resources are
threatened because of drought,"
says Diana Allen, a professor of
hydrogeology at
SFU.
Just how much consumer and
industrial demand has increased
is unknown. The most glaring
shortfall of the century-old legis-
lation is the failure to track total
freshwater use from both surface
water sources—lakes and rivers—
and groundwater from beneath
John E Marriott (gEtty iMagEs) april 2015 BCBusiness 15
t he mon t hly in for mer
TMı
"The idea of breaking bread
carries a lot of significance.
A meal can become a social
endeavour to bring your
employees together"
– Cori Maedel, p.25
"this is probably
going to happen
more: very dry
periods in summer
where surface
water resources
are threatened"
–Diana Allen, SFU prof
A p r i l 2 0 15
Water, Water Everywhere?
N a t u r a l R e s o u r c e s
B.C.'s water resources are taxed to the limits. new legislation hopes to ease
the strain–in no small part by making industry pay more by Dene Moore
INSIDE
Sci-fi Central ... Pot, then and now ... making the most of mentors ... A free lunch + more ...
OIL AND WATER
B.C. oil and gas operations
used 1.9 million cubic metres
of water from Northern B.C.'s
Liard River over the first nine
months of 2014
