It’s the board’s top priority and the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) finance committee moved over $23 million in regional water supply system projects forward at Round 2 2025 budget debate on Jan. 13.
Those recommendations are to be considered by the board and, if endorsed, incorporated into the current year’s spending plan, which is slated to be finalized in February.
The lion’s share, $22.6 million, was earmarked for construction of the Langdale well field and related infrastructure, which includes an additional half full-time equivalent (FTE) in staffing for 2025. The well field will be a multi-year project to be paid for via a $17.9 million long-term loan, $4.1 million from Canada Community-Building Funds allocated from Halfmoon Bay, Roberts Creek, Elphinstone and West Howe Sound and $606,844 from regional Growing Communities Funds.
A 2025/2026 feasibility study and development of raw water reservoirs was recommended at a price of $397,872. That project, which also will includes a .35 FTE, is to be funded from reserves.
An additional FTE for a senior utility operator, prorated for a mid-year start, has been given the committee okay in 2025. Recruitment costs, wages, benefits and costs for a vehicle, will add just over $163,000 to the 2025 spending plan.
Cross connection control
Securing a consultant to develop a cross-connection control program for larger use connections on regional water systems, in keeping with a bylaw that has been on the books but not fully implemented, was recommended by the committee. Rather than staging that project over two years, the committee supported funding the total of $90,000 in 2025 as staff noted that Vancouver Coastal Health is encouraging the SCRD to move this forward.
The need for the project was discussed at the Jan. 9 board meeting.
While the SCRD has been fortunate to not have experienced contamination in any of its water systems over the past 25 years, a situation where that may have been a possibility arose in Gibsons in the summer of 2014. In relation to that incident, Town of Gibsons communications manager Bronwyn Kent told Coast Reporter by a Jan. 14 email “while cross-contamination was investigated, the evidence at the time indicated that the Parkland Reservoir was the most likely source.”
“The Town has had a cross-connection control program in place since 2012 as part of our universal metering initiative. Additionally, all large service connections are inspected annually to ensure that backflow prevention devices are functioning properly. The Town continues to prioritize water safety and infrastructure improvements, and we fully support measures to mitigate risks to water systems, such as those being considered by the SCRD,” she wrote.
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