The Municipality of North Cowichan gives notice that it seeks the approval of its electors to adopt a Loan Authorization Bylaw to borrow a maximum of $1,750,000 dollars for up to a 20-year period to fund construction of two ground water wells, ancillary works, a watermain, and two reservoirs in Chemainus."

Those are the first words of a backgrounder for the Electoral Response process that the municipality has started to get approval for the borrowing. At first glance, this is a no-brainer. Chemainus will get clean water from the Chemainus River aquifer. No more Boil Water advisories during the winter. No more 'brown stuff' in our bathtubs.

But there is a lot more to this issue. Since 2006, the CRA has been calling for a comprehensive watershed management study of the Chemainus River before this project goes ahead. We have held Town Hall meetings about this issue, have published articles in the local press about it and have supported Halalt First Nation in its 6-year campaign against this project.
During a lengthy BC Environmental Assessment Office inquiry into this project, Halalt's hydrologist proved that the Chemainus River is directly linked to the aquifer and that continued pumping showed a noticeable drop in the river's level.

The Chemainus River is very fragile river system. For 20 years the Halalt people have been working with other to re-stock the river's salmon. They also havest hundreds of thousands of pounds of clams in the river's estuary. The river and its habitat has been severly impacted by development and logging in the watershed.

The CRA thinks that a watershed study is a very simple, common-sense step for North Cowichan to take before it begins pumping water from the aquifer.
One must remember that the first steps in the aquifer project was started in 2003 when residential development was starting to boom in the Chemainus area. Although technically North Cowichan would only be allowed to pump water from October through May, many of us fear that there could some day be a demand for year-round pumping which would be catastrophic for the river system.

Chemainus currently gets its water from a surface reservoir fed by Banon Creek and Holyoak Lake. North Cowichan has not properly investigated the costs of enlarging this reservoir and protecting this watershed from logging and other possible contaminants. Hundreds of municipal water systems across Canada are fed by surface water. Filtration and other protective measures may be costly in the short term. But irretrievable damage to an aquifer brings unimaginable costs.

In addition, North Cowichan should think about other impacts of its wells project. The pumps will be powered by ever-more expensive electricity. Constructing a five-kilometer pipeline and a million liter reservoir has costs more than just in dollars.

Of course, there is no easy solution to such challenges. But we respectfully ask North Cowichan's powers-that-be to step back and take a wise and thoughtful second look at this project and its impacts.