LAST of Feb. 23rd letter;

Under Section 25 (1) of the DWPA, a DWO is entrusted to make an order where they
have reason to believe that (a) “a drinking water health hazard exists, or (b) “there is a
significant risk of an imminent drinking water health hazard.” These “orders may be
directed at the person in charge of the thing that caused the hazard or risk at their
expense,” and that “the orders can include investigations, abatement, remediation
measures or plans.” Section 25 (3c) specifically empowers the DWO to “abate the
drinking water health hazard.” The NCID maintains that the copious evidence presented
above is sufficient for the DWO to order the CVFC to cease and desist in their logging
proposal for the Camp Run Creek watershed. The “simple means to prohibit logging”
does in fact exist in this instance, and the NCID beseeches the DWO to utilize their
legislated authority to do just that in regards to the Camp Run Creek watershed.
Land-use decisions on Crown lands are essentially made by the Ministry of Forests and
Range (MoFR), and while water suppliers are sometimes invited to the table as the
logging company is reviewing their cutting plans, water supplierʼs requests are very
often ignored. In the case of the NCID and the CVFC, the water purveyor has been
completely ignored in the process of CVFCʼs planning for the logging of Camp Run
Creek watershed. The NCIDʼs February 15, 2008 statement to the MoFR District
Manager, Kootenay Lake Forest District is attached to this document for details of these
transgressions of the CVFC's own 2007 Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP) and the
applicable sections of the Forest Planning and Protection Regulation (FPPR). The
voluminous evidence supplied in this attached statement overwhelmingly demonstrates
the CVFCʼs wanton disregard for their own prescribed public participation process, as
well as their ʻsmoke-screen strategyʼ regarding their stated watershed values and
practices. These blatant inactions by the logging company reveal the CVFCʼs neglect to
engage the NCID regarding the contamination of the water purveyorʼs watershed. This
constitutes a direct threat to the public health of the people of the NCID who rely upon
the integrity of the Camp Run Creek watershed as the primary barrier in their source
drinking water protection.
The water purveyor is requesting IHAʼs intervention in this matter, through the position of the DWO, for the benefit of safeguarding the publicʼs health and the preservation of the NCIDʼs drinking water system. The water supplier has documented proof that the CVFC has refused to engage the NCID as per their own FSP, and as such they are not addressing the concerns of the contamination of the NCIDʼs source water supply. These were the two conditions, outlined in IHAʼs letter of December 18, 2007, that needed to be present for the DWO to utilize their legislated powers. The NCID therefore now implores the DWO to commence with an immediate investigation under Section 29 of the DWPA. Further and more importantly, the NCID respectfully requisitions, under Sections 23 and 25 of the DWPA, the complete abatement of any proposed logging plans or activities by the CVFC for the Camp Run Creek watershed. Both of these protective actions are reasonable, and are required by the DWO, when the DWPA has
been violated as it has by the CVFC. There is a demonstrable and significant risk of an
imminent drinking water health hazard because the CVFC is not utilizing best
management practices (their own prescription for public participation of licensed wateruser
groups, sanctioned by the MoFR) for logging in a drinking watershed. The best
management practices of the CVFC - specifically their FSP and the FPPR - for activities in the Camp Run Creek watershed have been established and have very clearly been ignored.
It is the NCIDʼs contention that a logging company not operating to best
management practices of the forestry industry and the MoFR are likely to be seen as
posing a significant threat to drinking water.
The DWQIP, and the NCIDʼs participation in it, are supposed to provide an arena for the
reduction of health risks to community water supplies, an opportunity for the NCID to
influence planning in the watershed, and a protective format for preserving the
hydrologic integrity and reliability of the Camp Run Creek catchment basin. The IHA and the NCID do not even have to act to improve North Canyonʼs pristine drinking water quality; they merely have to preserve it with sensible forethought and reasonable
protective actions.
The following quote from the MoFR Research Branch, in a document
entitled “Ecosystems of British Columbia,” sums up this sentiment:
The quality and quantity of water within a watershed is largely a function of the intact forest cover. Tree cover controls snow storage and melt rates by snow interception, shading, and wind ablation, influencing both yield and
streamflow. Peak flows with their consequent high soil erosion rates are reduced by an intact forest cover. In snowdominated forested watersheds, seasonal snow melt rates
are less and runoff from rain-on-snow events is less than in deforested watersheds. . . . .
Water quality is best
maintained in forested watersheds. Forested watersheds have landslide rates many times less than comparable watersheds. Slope stability is enhanced by the tree roots
anchoring the steeply sloped soils. An intact forest cover shields the soil from raindrop erosion, as do the organic soil horizons. Overland flow of water is extremely rare in forested watersheds because of the high surface infiltration through the well-structured forest soils, and because of the macropermeability provided by earthworm holes, burrows, and rotted root channels. As a consequence, rates of surface soil erosion are very low in forested watersheds. . . . .
The importance of maintaining forested slopes in many community watersheds is illustrated by the high proportion of small watersheds that make up the provincial water supply.
Small watersheds are, of course, much more susceptible to alterations in water flow or quality, because any disturbance will affect a high proportion of the watershed area. . . . [Small watersheds] serve 41% of the provincial population, yet they make up only 0.09% of the land area in British Columbia. . . .
Forests play a vital role in regulating water supply and maintaining pristine water quality in British Columbia.
As an important part of their source water protection plan under the auspices of the
DWQIP program, the NCID Trustees have kept abreast of watershed developments and
in doing so have identified an activity - the logging proposal for the Camp Run Creek
watershed - that could affect the quality, quantity, and the timing of the flow for the
drinking water source of this community. The water supplier in this instance is attempting to reduce the risk to public health by utilizing a multi-barrier, source-to-tap approach to protect and monitor North Canyonʼs drinking water quality. The DWQIP is, however, a two-pronged approach to the protection of the publicʼs valuable and vulnerable drinking water sources. The second component is the utilization of the powerful authority legislated to the DWO and the IHA under the DWPA.
The NCID Board urges determined and purposeful action by the MoHʼs local drinking water authorities to issue an immediate hazard abatement and prevention order in this
proposed logging of the Camp Run Creek drinking watershed. Only in this way will the
IHA and the NCID be able to effectively work together to utilize the DWQIP and the
DWPA to protect the community of North Canyon from a serious health threat to their
source of drinking water in the Camp Run Creek watershed.

The Board of Trustees
North Canyon Improvement District
Canyon, BC