A familiar face returned to the water system update presentation at the Sept. 28 Sunshine Coast Regional District committee of the whole meeting. General manager of infrastructure services, Remko Rosenboom, a key spokesperson during the regional district’s 2022 water crisis was on hand to respond to questions. He had been away from those duties throughout most of 2023.
Answering a question from Area D director Kelly Backs, Rosenboom responded that the Chapman Water System was “far from an emergency” when lake storage levels dropped to zero per cent on Sept. 21. He explained that reading level indicated that the siphons were in use, and that with those, an additional 2.5 to 3 metres of lake water became available.
Siphon use has stopped, with the lake now about 8 mm above the level of the weir, utilities superintendent Codi Abbott stated in the update. The lake level adjusted after 196 mm of rain fell in its watershed between Sept 23 and 26. With that change, Chapman Water System users were moved from Stage 4 to Stage 1 water use rules on Sept. 27. Stage 1 restrictions are the minimum level required by bylaw for the region’s water systems between May 1 and Sept. 30 annually.
Abbott said that with the lake level recharged, Gray Creek and Church Road Well Field supplies have been taken offline. On Sept. 27, temporary water filters at the Church Road plant were replaced with the proper sine wave filters and regional staff are working with the province on a timeline for a follow-up 72-hour run test for that system’s pumps.
Staff are developing further Chapman Creek fish monitoring methods, Abbott noted, “as the province has indicated that data will be required for future EFN (environmental flow needs) reductions." The regional district has been awaiting provincial consideration of partial year modifications to the Chapamn EFN, the volume of required lake outflow to the creek, since 2022.
MacNeill Lake received less rainfall
Abbott stated that about 26 mm of rain fell between Sept. 23 and 26 at MacNeill Lake,(which is at a lower elevation than Chapman) and that water levels at that South Pender water system supply increased by a corresponding amount. The lake is still well below 2022 levels, and she noted staff would be travelling to the systems feeder supply, Harris Lake, later in the week to assess conditions at that site. Rosenboom said that the potential for installation of equipment to remotely monitor Harris Lake conditions may come forward during the 2024 budget debate.
Next update Oct. 12
The committee agreed that staff provide the next and potentially final regular water system update for the year at its Oct. 12 meeting after Rosenboom commented that with water use restrictions continuing at Stage 3 for users on the South Pender System and at Stage 4 for those on the Eastbourne system, a further update for the committee and the community would be useful.
