For a third year in a row, the Sunshine Coast Regional District's (SCRD) Chapman Water System has been placed on Stage 4 (severe) water restrictions. A ban on all outdoor uses of that system's water, effective Sept. 8 was announced via press release on Sept. 6.
Last year those restrictions came into force Aug. 31 and in 2021 Stage 4 was called Aug. 10. That system supplies most of the regional district’s water customers and 90 per cent of the population of the lower Sunshine Coast, residing in areas from Halfmoon Bay to West Howe Sound
"Due to sustained heat and hardly any rain in the past few months, Chapman Lake levels have dropped triggering the need to start using the Chapman siphons and Edwards lake storage,” SCRD chief administrative officer Dean McKinley stated in the release. “This has unfortunately led us to have to make the difficult decision to move to severe water regulations.”
A major consideration in that call was community fire protection. In the release the SCRD manager of protective services, Matt Treit, stated, “The fire danger rating is currently very high on parts of the Sunshine Coast. On behalf of all our Fire Chiefs, I ask that our community obey Stage 4 water conservation regulations to ensure we have adequate water supply in the case of wildfire on the Sunshine Coast.”
Exemption for food producers
Commercial farms are exempt from Stage 4 water conservation regulations for food crops, for a two-week period, commencing from the first date of Stage 4 regulations, Sept. 8 to 22. It also advised businesses and residential properties using water indoors are encouraged to plan a water reduction strategy to reduce water consumption as much as possible during Stage 4. The SCRD is offering a bulk water filling station, located in Langdale, to support business continuity for farm irrigation or construction projects impacted by Stage 4.
How conservations stage decisions are made
A change to water conservation stage levels “is an operational decision based on a number of factors” McKinley wrote. Those include system water demands, details on which McKinley did not provide in response to Coast Reporter’s questions.
Conservation stage adjustments do not require direction from the SCRD board, but McKinley told Coast Reporter that staff “share this info with the Board as soon as we identify that we need to move from one stage to another." The Chapman Water System had been at Stage 3 (acute) since Aug. 11.
The steady decline in water levels at Chapman Lake throughout August is displayed on the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) website. Remaining storage capacity dipped to 16 per cent as of Sept. 4. August 2023 began with 80 per cent storage volumes reported. Environment Canada reported 18.9 mm of rainfall on the Coast during last month, with 6.5 mm falling during the final three days and the rest accumulated on Aug. 8 and 9.
The next water update from SCRD staff has been scheduled for public presentation on Sept. 14, when SCRD elected officials are slated to resume regular committee and board meetings after taking a break during the month of August.
