Thirsting

ANYONE else with
water on the brain?

On this damp side of the
inlet that’s not a rare condi-
tion. Apart trom what is
delivered from abave, water
makes up a good portion of
the North Shore psyche.

It is home, after ail, to
two-thirds of the reservoirs
that currently provide 16
Lower Mainland municipali-
ties with their drinking and
other tresh water supplies.

Water is us.

But the future of the
North Shore as the water-
works for the rest of the
Greater Vancouver area is
becoming increasingly
cloudy. Turbid might be a
better term.

And it needs a wholesale
re-evaluation.

The Greater Vancouver
Regional District, an unelect-
ed fourth level of bureaucra-
cy involved in water, sewage
and other infrastructure
issues for 16 municipalities,
including those on the
North Shore, is pushing
ahead with plans to sink
approximately $350 million
into local water quality and
dam rehabititation at the
Capilano and Seymour reser-
voirs.

No one needs to be told
that $350 million is a far
chunk of taxpayers’ change.

But the rationale behind
the upgrade has been lest, ar
least to me, in the shuffle.

From: my soggy memory

yarns

banks it has something to do
with North Shore water not
meeting Canadian drinking
water standards during cimtes
of increased water turbidity.

In the Capilano watershed
that turbidity results when
heavy rains wash sediment
into the reservoir trom sur-
roundirg hills. Small land-
slides from unstable slopes
are a major source of that
turbidity.

Increased turbidity
reduces the ability of chlo-
tine to neutralize waterborne
bugs such as gitrdia lamblia
and eryptosporidium.

Thus the decades-long
controversy over local water
quality and what to do about
it,

Leaving aside the debate
over watershed Jogging, the
net result of the controversy
is the current water quality
upgrade plan.

But, to my knowledge, no
one has ever gotten sick
from drinking North Share
water.

And instances of high tur-
bidity, at least to this local
water consumer, have been
minimal over the past year.

aft

So the question begged
herein: do we need to invest
all the energy and public
funds into upgrading North
Shore water treatment?

Especially when you con-
sider that, compared with
other area alternatives, the
two North Shore watersheds
are really small players in the
water volume game.

We are not the water
kings we think we are.

North Vancouver District
Coun. Ernie Crist, for one,
has proposed that a morato-
rium be placed on Cleveland
Dam upgrade work until a
cost benefit study of all
GVRD water resources has
been conducted.

Say what you will about
Councillor Crist, but he
makes sense more often than
not. And on this issue he
makes abundant sense,

Consider that the upgrade
work to the Capilana watee-
shed/ Cleveland dam will
have a major disruptive
impact on North Vancouver
residents in the neighbour-
hoods surrounding the dam:
construction work 10 hours
a day over four years or 24
hours a day over two years.

Consider also the Jack of
any study of the plan and its
cost benefits in concert with
the overall water resources of
the Greater Vancouver
region.

And finally consider a
major alternative that has
only recently come to light:
the use of Harrison

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River/Harrison Lake as a
water reservoir for most, if
not all, of the Fraser Valley
and Lower Mainland area.

Water quality in both
Harrison river and lake is
considered excellent. And
the size of the lake dwarfs
thar of all three current
Lower Mainland reservoirs
combined.

Harrison Lake watershed
is 3,000 sq. miles (7,800 sq.
km.). The Capilano water-
shed is 77 sq. miles (200 59.
km); Seymour is 70 sq. miles
(183 sq. km); Caguidam is
82 sq. miles (221 sq km).

The Capilano and
Seymour watersheds can sup-
ply approximately three mil-
lion people with water;
Harrison lake has the capaci-
ty to supply 100 million peo-
ple.

A Jong way away, you sav?
Harrison is that.

Burt the Fraser Valley
Water Commission is cur-
rently developing plans to
expand its water supply to
include the Harrison water-
shed. And it is seeking to
push its water service west to
Chilliwack, Langley, Surrey
and Maple Ridge.

Those municipal partners
would provide economies of

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© Call Forwarding

Sunday, June 27, 1999 - North Shore News - 7

scale for the project. Further
economies of scale would be
realized if municipalities far-
ther west were to tap into
the water supply.

At the end of April, the
GVRD's water committee
passed a resolution asking
the GVRD board of direc-
tors to explore the possibility
of plugging into the Frase
Valley water supply system

,and the Harrison River/Lake
watershed.

The consideration makes
good sense on a host of
fronts.

er some dam answers

One of which is cost.

Estimated GVRD water
expenditures from 1997 to
2006 will run to $960 mil-
lion for improvements to
water transmission lines,
source treatment and source
supply.

cr-unit water costs

(that’s you at home on the
recciving cnd) could hit as
high as $3 per 1,000 gallons
by 2006 depending on pop-
ulation growth. Current per-
unit costs are 75 cents per

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