By Chris Moss, resident of Otter Point

Development impacts water resources. The Sooke Region has seen a lot of recent development, and the pace of building is likely to continue.  

The Kemp Lake water system was recently added to the CRD water system. Residents paid for the CRD line to service their area resulting in water charges much higher than District of Sooke residents.

In Otter Point and areas north and west from there, the population is too small to make further extensions to the CRD system viable, these residents rely on wells, stream water, rain harvesting or hauled water.

New developments must prove to CRD that a well is in place for each lot and that water flow on each well meets minimum requirements. However, if all wells in a development are pulling water in the middle of the summer, there is no predicting who will lose water and who won’t. 

Wells can be checked any time of year. Builders may tend time their building permit applications to coincide with early spring well-tests made when aquifers are at peak amounts.  Part of the permit process is to check for other wells in the area and determine if additional wells will affect the older wells. Of course, if an older well is not registered and a new building permit with a well is approved, the older well owner may find their water supply is severely impacted by newer registered wells.  If this happens to you and your unregistered well, there is no legal recourse, and you will end up having to find another way to get your water.

Hauling water cost varies from 200 to 800 dollars a delivery depending on where you live. The local water hauling business in Sooke doubled its fleet of tanker trucks last year and plans to double it again in the coming year.

In nature only ten percent of rain ends up as runoff. Over a paved parking lot, seventy percent of the rain ends up as runoff and is lost to the ground water. Developments therefore should be required to use permeable pavers, grass, gravel or some other permeable medium to allow rain to be absorbed in the soil. 

The infrastructure built into commercial areas to handle “wastewater” can be drastically reduced by planning for rainwater retention on-site.  Put the water into tanks for watering in the summer, install rain gardens and swales which can rapidly fill up and hold water for infiltration or put in a system where the captured water can be used in the building as non-potable water.  Vegetation such as gardens and trees will cool the area and provide shade and fresh air.

It is much more costly to retrofit rain systems than it is to plan them into the original build.  True, the cost of the original build will go up, meaning less profit for the builder or a higher cost to the buyer. Developers will build to established codes and bylaws, therefore it is the responsibility of municipalities and districts to see the bigger picture of climate change and (if needed) force developers to include climate change adaptations in their plans.  

One development in Otter Point met all current rules on water and wells, and yet by the time that all the homes were built the wells were drying up.  As each new well came online it started taking the water from the neighbour’s well.  As one person described it, “You can only put so many straws in a milkshake before no one gets anything”. Now almost all that housing development relies on hauling water.

Developers need to build for the future and consider the use of water at every step of the process. South facing metal roofs for rainwater harvesting and solar panels are a good start.