Drinking Water in the Alberni Valley

[The Invisible Man]

THIS REPORT says Port Alberni water reservoirs are at peak capacity. The recent snowfalls have ensure an ample water supply.

That same may not hold true for Cherry Creek and Beaver Creek because their water sources are partly derived from the karsts on the Beaufort Range Mountains. These areas do not rely on the snow pack for their water supply.

About a week ago, I was invited to a meeting about drinking water in Cherry Creek. From what I heard, people are concerned with logging that will soon be taking place up by their water source (Lacey Lake). Island Timberlands LP has plans to log around the area this spring/summer.

Some people at the meeting thought the boil water advisory in Cherry Creek this past winter was due to a logging road that was recently built in the area. Anita Franceour, the person that wrote a report about drinking water in the valley, did not attribute the problem to the road. Nor did Reid Robertson, the expert on karsts on the mountain range, point to the road as a cause.

The chairperson of the Cherry Creek Water Board said the boil water advisory was the result of a rain event that occurs approximately once every 100 years. If I recall it correctly there were two rain events back to back and that could be an issue. Nonetheless, Cherry Creek residents will soon find out that they too need to upgrade their water system to meet the government's requirements for drinking water or join into the proposed regional water system.

I sure like Cherry Creek Water Board's approach in the matter. Rather than pointing a finger at logging as the cause of their problems they are taking a more holistic approach and looking at all of the contributing factors. Glenn Wong, Cherry Creek's regional district representative, said that they are exploring the idea of purchasing the water shed, or at least the area that may be negatively impacted by logging.

Cherry Creek is in a better position than Beaver Creek because they don't have much in the way of potential contaminant sources upstream from their water intake. Cherry Creek's greatest concern is excessive run-off caused by logging and bacteria from wild animals. Beaver Creek has that plus intensive farming, leaking septic fields, chemicals contamination, etc. to worry about -- there's lots of activity in the Stamp/Ash/Somass watershed. Although Cherry Creek's two main potential contaminant sources are expensive to address at least their watershed has relatively little activity.

[chrisale]

The chairperson of the Cherry Creek Water Board said the boil water advisory was the result of a rain event that occurs approximately once every 100 years. If I recall it correctly there were two rain events back to back and that could be an issue.

You can expect those "100 year" events to happen more often than 100 years....

[lionking]

If you didn't boil your water you would be washing in sh*t and other fowl things in the water. I worked for a family in Cherry Creek 20 years ago and, there were some boil water notices back then. I will never forget that, as you all know when a boil water is issued it is a great deal of extra work. This happened in the city to when we owned the cafe at the North Island college a few years ago.
Boiling water for washing and rinsing dishes was hard. Boiling water for washing your hands, you have to put in a large bowl with a bit of bleach in it. Boil water to brush your teeth and wash your face. Going to the gym every day takes care of a shower, I go to a friends place. For 9 years we have been buying water for drinking for 2 cats and dog
So count your blessings you don't have to do this that often.

[The Invisible Man]

Today's news reaffirms BCID is on it's way out and to me that means soon we will be able to stop boiling our water. I am so sick of it. I wonder how much time and money we have spent making our water safe to drink? For me, it's lots. For many, people the toll has been high. Basically, it boils down to this: if it's not boiled and/or filtered/ultra violet disinfection, don't drink it. When you consider parasites (and don't think we're "special" and somehow immune to them in this area because we're not), chlorination (and some other types of disinfection) are not good enough barriers.

THIS is the news report in today's paper about the resolutions passed to dissolve BCID.

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