The Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition and the mid-Island chapter of The Council of Canadians are calling on the City of Nanaimo, and the Nanaimo Regional District, to take greater steps to protect local drinking water
A rare “boil water advisory” was issued for the City of Nanaimo’s drinking water on December 11, 2014. Heavy rainfalls led to increased turbidity in the water supply. Citizens were advised to boil their drinking water for one minute at a rolling boil. The advisory was lifted on December 14, but it served to raise awareness about the safety of the region’s drinking water supply.
Turbidity and pathogens
Turbidity — or water cloudiness — can interfere with municipal water treatment systems. Excessive turbidity in drinking water is not only aesthetically unappealing; it can also represent a health concern. If not removed, turbidity can promote the regrowth of pathogens in the distribution system, leading to waterborne disease outbreaks, which have caused significant cases of gastroenteritis in various regions of North America and elsewhere in the world. [source: The USGS Water Science School]
High turbidity can be caused by natural occurrences such as heavy rains, snowmelt, ice scour or windstorms. However, high turbidity can also be caused by human activity in upstream areas. For example, clear cutting causes soil to wash away into rivers and increase turbidity. Mining can also release large amounts of sediment and rock material if not properly contained, and this material can wash into nearby rivers, lakes, and streams, and increase turbidity. [source: Government of the Northwest Territories, opens to PDF]
The Nanaimo region’s watershed
Nanaimo’s water supply begins with rainfall and snowmelt that flows from high up in the central Vancouver Island mountains through mountain rivers, streams and brooks in the watershed of the South Fork of the Nanaimo River. Two large storage lakes, Jump Lake and South Fork Lake, collect water, rain and snow-melt flowing from the mountains.
The watershed covers 230 square kilometres, an area three times the size of the City of Nanaimo, and it’s located 20 kilometres south west of the City. The watershed itself is protected and access is strictly limited to safeguard the water supply from human contamination and other pollutants. [source: Water: Nanaimo’s Most Precious Resource, opens to PDF]
Watershed under private ownership
The cities of Vancouver and Victoria own their watersheds and control all of the activity within them, guaranteeing the security and quality of their water supply. But the City of Nanaimo does not own the community drinking watershed that supplies the residents of our community.
Island Timberlands, a subsidiary company of the multi-national corporation Brookfield Asset Management owns 86% of the Nanaimo community drinking watershed and TimberWest, another forest company, owns the remaining 14%. [source: Mid-Island Council of Canadians]
Coalitions ask for greater local control
Vancouver Island Water Watch, together with Mid Island Council of Canadians, believe that “a clean, high quality, secure source of drinking water is the most important asset that any city can own.” The groups are calling for the City of Nanaimo to start the process of purchasing or expropriating the important parts of the Nanaimo community-drinking watershed to protect it now and for future generations. The most important sections, according to the coalitions, are the valleys and streams above Jump Lake that flow into the lake.
We speak with June Ross of Vancouver Island Water Watch.
616_nanaimo water_june ross_mar_12_2015_40
Left-click to listen; right-click to save.
Vancouver Island Water Watch was founded by a small group of concerned citizens in the mid Vancouver Island area in 2005 due to a concerted effort to privatize community water systems on Vancouver Island by profit seeking out-of-province and out-of-country corporations. You can find them online here.
The Mid Island Council of Canadians has been active in British Columbia for more than a decade, focusing on issues of peace, water, trade, climate justice and healthcare. We strive to develop innovative campaigns that bring a local perspective to national issues. You can find them online here.
RELATED ARTICLE | Mid Island News: Nanaimo’s watershed guardians sound alarm (Mar. 14, 2015) |
Image top: Jump Lake, from Mid-Island Council of Canadians website
video, tweets
audio: Local groups concerned about #Nanaimo drinking water quality & ownership @MidIslandCoC http://t.co/MNA9uinw1i pic.twitter.com/KCOLGRnxRg
— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) March 13, 2015
