Chapman Water System users may get their first taste of water from the long-promised Church Road Well Field as soon as Friday.
“Leave to Commence” from the Ministry of Forests to begin operating the Church Road well and a final water licence were received by the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) on June 30. The local government released those and other details in a July 5 press release.
“All conditions have been satisfied” related to those approvals, the release stated.
Still pending before the SCRD can start the water pumps at the site is the contract for required compliance monitoring of Soames Creek, located near the well. The award for that work is to be considered at a special SCRD Board meeting set for July 6. Neither the contract nor any staff report related to it were available on the posted meeting agenda as of 11:30 a.m. on July 4.
Another outstanding well field access issue relates to the contractors that built the $9.27 million infrastructure project. The release indicated that the “SCRD is working with the prime contractor – Maycon Construction Ltd. – for substantial completion sign off by July 7."
The well field will feed up to 4.6 million litres of water per day (4,300 cubic metres) to the Chapman water system, which will be moving to Stage 2 level water conservation measures on July 7. The SCRD identified it as “a significant step forward in securing water supply for the Sunshine Coast” in the press release.
In addition, water from Gray Creek is slated to be added into the Chapman system as of July 11, according to the release. Water quality testing of that source was approved by Vancouver Coastal Health and a volume of up to three million litres (3,000 cubic metres) of additional water per day can be accessed.
A regional water supply update will also be on the agenda of the July 6 meeting. That meeting can be attended by the public in person at the SCRD’s Field Road office or accessed online.
