The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has received permission to keep siphons in place at Chapman and Edwards Lake for three additional years, through 2025.
The SCRD received the news July 7, regional district chief administrative officer Dean McKinley told Coast Reporter. The province granted the extension of the right to keep that infrastructure in place at the lakes – which are in Tetrahedron Provincial Park – after the SCRD ask received a letter of support from the shíshálh Nation, he said.
The Chapman siphons, which had been slated for removal this fall, lift lake water over the dam to feed the creek and 16 kilometres downstream, the SCRD’s water treatment plant. The regional district can only apply to start siphon use once the Chapman Water System is on Stage 4 conservation measures. At that point, that piping system can access up to 1.3 million cubic metres of water, according to McKinley, who described the setup as “a small piece of infrastructure that provides access to a lot of water and operate essentially cost-free."
Best use of all water supply tools needed
Even with the addition of Church Road and Gray Creek sources to the Chapman supply this year and the potential for the Nation’s proposed first lower crown reservoir’s addition as early as 2024, “we could still be needing the siphons well into the future” McKinley said. In his view, that is due to the “unknowns” that climate change impacts are having for the system’s water supplies and demands.
He stressed that there is a ongoing need for the SCRD “to consider how to make best use of all of the [water supply] tools we have available and use them most appropriately and environmentally safely.”
Continued discussions of those tools, including talks about temporary reductions in Chapman Creek environmental flow needs during the summer months with the Nation and the province are something the CAO said regional representatives are looking forward to in the near future.
