...Continued from Part 1

As of Wednesday much of the province lacked water with drought conditions more severe than normal for the time of year. “July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth,” said Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma. “We are experiencing the impacts of climate change right now.”

Out of 34 water basins in the province, 23 were at either drought level four or five, the highest levels, she said. “This continues to be a severe situation.”

On the same call, an executive director with the Agriculture and Food Ministry, Mark Raymond, said the government is providing access to water to some unlicensed water users who have animals to care for.

“There are a number of unauthorized users that we’re aware of that have livestock,” he said. “We have followed up with those unauthorized users directly and have provided them sources, registered sources of water, where they can provide livestock drinking water to ensure that there are no animal welfare issues for those unauthorized users.”

Connie Chapman, the director of the water management branch in the Ministry of Forests, responded to a question about unlicensed water users who may be buying water from other sources.

“Individuals can look to potentially other licensees that may hold a licence for water transport or for other mechanisms under the Water Sustainability Act that would allow water to then be used at that point and location,” she said. “The critical thing is looking at what is within the legislation and ensuring that if the use, and how it is being used for, still aligns with the legislation.”

She said it was a “challenging situation” and that it’s important that any licence holder stay in compliance with the law.

A few weeks earlier, in a July 13 call with reporters, Chapman had said the response to drought conditions included stopping unauthorized water use. “Currently staff are working to identify those users and issue orders under the Water Sustainability Act to require them to cease use,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Forests Ministry said “identifying unauthorized water users is a time-consuming process and diverts government resources.” Since 2016 the priority has been to encourage and support people to apply for groundwater licenses and remind all water users “to help protect aquifers and streams for those who depend on reliable access to water for their livelihoods.”

Officers have issued some orders to unauthorized users, he said, with ministry staff giving priority to watersheds experiencing the most serious impacts. Those include the Koksilah and Tsolum watersheds on Vancouver Island, the Nechako watershed, Kootenay River watershed and three watersheds in the Thompson-Okanagan region.

In most cases, when the government believes someone is an unauthorized water user, they first send a notice and give them a chance to respond. “In more egregious cases, ministry staff may issue orders... to cease diversion without first sending a notification. These orders are delivered by Provincial Compliance and Enforcement staff.”

As of late July, the government had issued seven orders for infractions of the Water Sustainability Act during this year’s drought, all of them on Vancouver Island.

Infractions are included in the province’s Natural Resources Compliance & Enforcement Database which has a few listings of alleged non-compliance that it describes as “Divert water from a stream or aquifer without lawful authority.”

Those cited since the start of the year include the Mark Anthony Group Inc. wine company, Baljit Sandhu in the Kootenay-Boundary region, Henry Reed Organic Produce in Gibsons, the Splash and Shine Car Wash on the South Coast, the Outback Nursery in Courtenay on Vancouver Island, Liefs Farm and Forest Corp., the Ponderosa Sod Farm in Courtenay, and Garden Works.

The Forests Ministry spokesperson said there is a lag between enforcement actions and their appearance in the database, so it doesn’t reflect the most recent actions.

The ministry knows that farmers and ranchers are among those facing immediate challenges during drought, he said. It continues to encourage anyone who is an unauthorized water user to submit a water licence application as soon as possible, he added, since unauthorized users risk being issued an order to stop using water.

In those cases, he said, “in the interim, there are steps people can pursue for securing water sources, such as trucking in water or working with their local government or a water purveyor to have water serviced to their land.”

While the Forests Ministry is enforcing the act and Ralston is defending cracking down on unlicensed groundwater users, Minister for Agriculture and Food Pam Alexis said during a recent news conference that it’s important representatives of agriculture are involved in the discussions about water.

“We need to be there to assure the agriculture community that they have the same access as they’ve had before,” she said on July 25. “It is complicated though, I can tell you it involves water licences and everything else.”

The issue involves other levels of government and there were many meetings happening on it, she said. “It is in process and in progress, the entire conversation about where we go from here.”

Jeremy Dunn, general manager at the BC Dairy industry group, said “licensing issues have been challenging. Members are working with government representatives on a regular basis to have those permits in place.”

Clear timelines were communicated and the watershed strategy is important work, he said, but it’s important to recognize that weather patterns have changed over the past decade. “We’ve got lots of water, but we’re not getting it at the right times and right places.”

The general manager of the BC Cattlemen’s Association, Kevin Boon, said that the licensing issue is about how to allocate the water the province has right now, a regime that requires keeping enough to protect fish, not the looming problem of how to ensure more is available.

It’s a complex question, he said, but in the future the ability to store more water for use during dry periods will be key. [Tyee]

https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/08/08/BC-Water-Rules-Bite/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=080823