Riding on a wave of action stimulated by the low-flow water crisis in the Cowichan watershed area last fall, One Cowichan hopes to actualize local watershed management. One Cowichan, consisting of concerned citizens who are “working to make the Cowichan a better place to work, live and play” would like to take advantage of the upcoming provincial election to this end.
The group has set up a website (onecowichan.ca) where citizens, who are also concerned about the Cowichan watershed, can learn more about the issues, donate to the cause, and sign a pledge form. Signees “pledge to vote for local control of our watershed so that we ourselves can better manage our water, our fish and wildlife, our swimming holes, and our landscape” on May 14.
The group feels that the election is also an important time to bring this issue to the forefront because the provincial government is currently re-writing legislation relating to water management.
“This is a great opportunity for them to perhaps include something that will allow for more local actual authority in managing water,” says Jefferson.
At the sustainable planning and development committee meeting on April 16, Parker Jefferson and Sandy Cumming, of One Cowichan, presented council with a “resolution of support from the Town of Lake Cowichan for a request to devolve authority now held by the provincial government to the Cowichan Watershed board.” The group plans to approach the elected officials of all Cowichan municipalities, as well as provincial electoral candidates, to ask for the same support.
Jefferson explained that the crisis last fall could have been prevented. “Essentially it was caused by bureaucratic mismanagement,” he told mayor and council, “by the governing authority over all watersheds in British Columbia, which is mostly the Ministry of Forests Lands and Management Resources Operations.”
The Cowichan Watershed Board consists of experts in watershed management who have already been working with government regulators to maintain “the rule curve . . . of the weir and its operation,” says Jefferson. But because this group does not have regulatory authority, they have no say in water management issues.
As a result, water was dumped in June and July of last year. “And we did the math,” says Jefferson, “and had they not pulled the lever and dumped all that water, we would not have had a low-flow crisis last fall.”
Jefferson says that One Cowichan does not think the current governance model works for a number of reasons, “not the least of which is that they don’t seem to be capable of doing long-term planning.” He pointed to the fact that the effects of climate change on the watershed are starting to be quantifiable due largely to the amount of data collected from the weir since 1956.
“We know how much water has come into the watershed every summer, precipitation, temperature, low rates, all of that data is available,” says Jefferson. “That data shows us our summertime precipitation has dropped by 35 per cent since the 1980s, and it also shows that our snow pack is decreasing year on year at approximately one per cent per year.”
Jefferson says that using volunteers to measure the snow pillow is the kind of initiative that can be put into motion if watershed management was more localized.
“We feel confident that if it can happen anywhere, it can happen here. We have the expertise, we have the willingness, and we want to do this,” says Jefferson.
In response to questions from council, Jefferson stated that questions surrounding issuance and management of water licenses need to be asked down the road. “We are starting this campaign just to get a discussion happening. This is a pilot project for BC,” says Jefferson, “and parameters would have to be negotiated.”
He also stated that the group is not planning to ask for tax dollars and would like to see the funding for such an initiative kept within the province. He also stated that they are working closely with Cowichan Tribes, who has a strong vested interest in the health of the river, and at the request of council agreed that it would be beneficial to also engage local Cowichan Lake First Nations.
Mayor and council did not make a decision at Tuesday’s meeting, but decided to dedicate time for further discussion at the next Regular Council Meeting and take into consideration recommendations from town staff.
