June 30 is now the target date for bringing the Church Road Well Field online to supply water to the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) Chapman system.
In a water supply update provided at the June 22 SCRD committee of the whole meeting, utility services manager Shane Walkey said discussions on the well field’s leave to commence with the Ministry of Forests and contractors held two days earlier were “positive and collaborative."
“This file is the team's top priority,” he stated. In explaining the time being taken to process the final approval of the new water source, he said, "Everybody has a job to do… all the T’s need to be crossed and all the I’s need to be dotted."
State of other Chapman system sources
Walkey’s report also updated the committee on other Chapman system water supply sources. He noted that staff travelled via helicopter to the Chapman Lake area earlier in the day and reported seeing only “patches of snow” on the ground and no lake ice.
Both Chapman and Edwards Lakes were reported as being “full” with approximately 10 cm of water passing over the Chapman dam. The estimated volume of the water overflow into the creek was at 1,500 litres per second. That was down from an estimated flow level earlier in June of 4,500 litres per second, but still well above the 200-litre mark that is needed to sustain the environmental flow needs in the creek.
An estimated 750,000 litres per day of water is being accessed from the Chaster Well, according to Walkey.
Stage 2 coming
As for when Stage 2 would be called, Walkey said that it is “coming in the next few weeks." He reported that a meeting with the health authority to seek approval to bring Gray Creek supplies online when the Chapman system is moved to Stage 2 had been held. To prepare for Gray Creek coming online, staff are working on flushing and cleaning of the source's infrastructure.
In four of the past five years, the Chapman system has been moved to Stage 2 in July. The exception year was 2019, when Stage 2 was introduced on June 7.
Water use drops
The impacts of the cooler, wetter weather in the area around June 10 were detailed in the update. Between June 3 and 9, Chapman system users drew more than 122 million litres through the treatment plant. That went down by 16 per cent for the period of June 10 to 16 to 102.6 million litres. “That’s a clear indication that people use more water when it is hot,” Walkey said.
In a related item, a special board meeting has been scheduled for July 6. Elected officials agreed to slot in an additional meeting to discuss what staff said would be “water supply issues." SCRD practice would be to post agenda material for that event on June 30.
