Editor:
After reading (again) about our water issues in last week’s Reporter, I am troubled by a couple of elephants in the room. First, the SCRD announced a two million litre per day drop in water usage between September and October, attributing it to the conservation actions of its citizens. Clearly that is a factor, but do the math – there was lots of short-term rental occupancy all summer through September, much less in October. Many of us have written letters to the editor with our concerns about rentals allowing high numbers of tourists in each house (the two near me allow 11 and 14 at a time). There’s no way to limit careless water usage from those visitors. Here’s a thought: why not allow STR licenses for rentals up to Stage 2 water restrictions, and shut them down after that, in the same way that SCRD is now shutting down other business users of water?
And there’s another water-usage elephant hiding in the pages of the Reporter. It seems that many of the concrete and gravel producers on the Coast have their own, very private sources of water saved for the production of gravel and concrete (Coast Reporter, October 21) while the humans in their community are told not to flush their toilets or revive their dying gardens. Mike Carter, from Central Coast Concrete, refused to divulge their secret source to the Reporter. How is this privatization of water legal? One industry flourishes while farmers and breweries may declare bankruptcy and our lakes run dry.
In an emergency situation, water should not be secreted away behind corporate doors, but made available to the humans in the community!
Let’s have some transparency and action around these little-discussed water issues.
Gail Riddell, Sechelt
