Like many a well before it on the Coast, a licensing wait is proving a roadblock for Sechelt’s Dusty Road well project – despite being for non-potable use.
Sechelt council is having staff investigate whether there is a faster approval process available than the 1.5-to three-year wait staff projected after talking with a provincial water officer.
At its June 7 regular council meeting, a motion to install a high-flow variable speed pump at the site using the Building Community Grant funds while investigating other grant options was defeated once the licensing wait came to the fore of discussion.
Mayor John Henderson, who has been a political proponent of Dusty Road as a water source, held that he believed there were faster approval options available and spoke to the project’s urgency. “We definitely need the water folks,” he said. “I would rather have this in and go to Victoria and say we need temporary approval. But if we keep waiting and waiting we will be dire, dire straits.”
Earlier in the discussion, Coun. Dianne McLauchlan voiced her objection to the overall project, citing concerns with contamination and questioning whether a further non-potable water supply was needed given the Water Resource Centre also fills that function.
Coun. Brenda Rowe defended the project, noting the capacity for the water to be used on-site at Sechelt’s operations centre as well as for the construction industry. Coun. Alton Toth spoke of the advantages of a high flow pump as the Water Resource Centre’s supply is from a half-inch garden hose, he said, good for filling a pail not a truck.
Coun. Darren Inkster questioned the project’s cost escalation to an overall $145,000 – up from the $25,000 initially committed for testing the well. (But those funds didn’t end up committed as the motion to install the pump was defeated.)
