The lower Coast’s primary purveyors of water are considering expansion.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board voted at its Jan 23 meeting to take its second step to explore the takeover of Hopkins Landing Waterworks.
It upped the budget for exploration work by $40,000 to $95,000 this year. Also added was a portion of a person year to handle additional administrative and communications duties by SCRD staff related to engaging with system users about how the potential change would impact them. Those items are to be paid for from Area F taxation. Reporting on that work is to come back to elected officials this fall for further decisions on whether SCRD ownership of the system is in its future.
What the system has and needs
Hopkins waterworks infrastructure provides water to 170 properties in the Hopkins Landing area. It has been owned and managed by a local improvement district since 1968. According to a staff report on a Jan. 23 SCRD committee meeting agenda, the waterworks group reached out to the SCRD in 2023 with a request the local government explore the provincial government process of “conversion” where the SCRD would take on responsibility for the water service.
In 2024, a waterworks assessment the SCRD had completed by a contractor, with a $10,000 grant from the province determined, overall the Hopkins system is in good condition with ample supply and no needs for major upgrades for five to 10 years, according to the staff report. That assessment, an initial step in the conversion process, also cautioned “there are several significant issues needing to be addressed within the system. These include watermain replacement, new hydrant requirements, unresolved land tenures in key areas, absence of water treatment, proximity of the north well site to septic, and new water licences for additional volume to meet current standards.”
Improvement district chair, Ian Thompson, spoke at the committee meeting, stating the people currently running the system “are aging out” and “just managing to hang on." As an example he noted he had served as a volunteer with that organization since the service was established. He highlighted that the group also has a 92-year-old in an administrative role, who has handled its billings for 63 years. A group of volunteers, several in their 70s, he said, have been keeping the system running and that in some cases, that has only been possible with assistance from the SCRD water department on the operational side. One of those incidents occurred after a November 2022 windstorm that decimated the system's pumphouse roof.
A report on the committee agenda described that the waterworks system “includes two production wells, two storage tanks with total reservoir capacity of 375,000 litres, and a distribution network. The water system is unchlorinated. The mains for the distribution system are primarily asbestos concrete (AC) piping, with replacement segments made up of PVC or steel piping. There are 11 fire hydrants connected to the system."
It also pointed out that the SCRD’s Langdale and Chapman Water Systems are connected to the Hopkins system with closed valves, which allows the entities to share drinking water during maintenance or emergency shutdowns. The sharing has been done over the years, according to SCRD staffer Remko Rosenboom on a “good neighbour basis” without a formal servicing agreement.
The board, along with okaying the second step in the exploration of potential takeover, asked staff to develop a service agreement between the two parties, so proper protections are in place pending conversion and if the final decision is to maintain the status quo.
Efficiencies with the Langdale well project possible
Area F director Kate-Louise Stamford, who represents the Hopkins area, asked if there was “any symmetry” with the $17 million Langdale well project (included in the soon to be adopted 2025 budget) and works needed to advance the takeover of the Hopkins waterworks.
Rosenboom noted that the Langdale project would be laying a new water supply main, and that the main upgrades needed in Hopkins would be for distribution. He said there could be savings on excavation costs, by doing work that requires digging for both projects at the same times.
