TO:
Roy Smith
Galiano Local Trust Committee
Michael Sharp
Galiano Local Trust Committee

CC: Kim Benson
Chair, Islands Trust

FROM: Gabriola Groundwater Management Society

RE: Galiano Forest 1 Review, 16 Apr, 2008
Dear Galiano Local Trust Committee,

I am writing to express our concerns about the proposed bylaws 199 and 200.
First we wish to thank you for "providing the following information to assist the public in their consideration of matters related to the Forest 1 Review and Proposed Bylaws 199 and 200.
This document does not address all issues. It compiles some information provided in past Islands Trust Staff Reports with some minor edits to provide context."
This information is at http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/ltc/gl/default.cfm under Fi Review and is quite comprehensive.
Our organization, GGMS, has the interests of Groundwater control and management at the root of our mission and our ethics. We have worked long and hard to instruct and communicate with our own and other Gulf Island communities about all kinds of issues around this one issue: Groundwater Management.
Our concerns arise when contemplation of any loss of control over Gulf Island watershed areas arises.
We realize that as of now there are no provincial regulations protecting watersheds per se. We find that to be a dangerous situation, especially as our watersheds recharge our aquifers. Our aquifers are our only source of stored water on each Gulf Island during the dry seasons. The more an aquifer is stressed by dry season drawdown from community summer use, the more difficult it can be to recover the actual aquifer capacity in some cases.
Numerous studies have found that many wells along Gulf Island coastlines (and Vancouver Island coastlines) are already at risk.
If watershed is compromised by the removal of too many trees, the ability to recharge in the wet season can be compromised as well.
If you add the additional stress of increased demand with new construction and development, you are then really pushing the envelope for a sustainable water supply via groundwater stocks.
It is our understanding that these areas on Galiano are the newest proposal for removal of watershed capacity, and that great areas of Galiano Island have been stripped of trees in the recent past. Those trees had formed a large watershed, water catchment/collection/recharge area that fed Galiano aquifers.
To deliberately proceed in a manner that continues the process of watershed disruption or destruction by removal of masses of trees is unwise in the extreme.
To deliberately relinquish control of these trees which comprise essential watershed area is not a sustainable plan and puts the very Island habitat and human habitations at risk for severe water shortages at best and aquifer collapse at worst. This worst case scenario would cost the residents of Galiano and the Islands Trust in General more than money. It would entail loss of habitat, environment and possibly the homes themselves. You cannot live without a water supply.
You cannot plan a community without planning a sustainable water supply. Aquifers are our only water supply. They, the rural and urban planners call this "Natural Infrastructure". We call it home.

Jenny MacLeod
President
Gariola Groundwater Management Society