CRD’s water estimates are off the mark

Re: “Health officer recommends $1.1B water-filtration plant,” March 3.

Contrary to the headline, the health officer did not recommend a filtration plant. He recommended that the Capital Regional District continue planning to build a water-filtration plant and linked the need to the diversion of the Leech River, needed in the future to meet demand for water. It is prudent to continue with planning. But we also need to find ways to defer the Leech diversion beyond the current projected date.

The CRD Master Plan assumed, without any analysis of current water use, that water demand would increase at the same rate as the population, i.e., per-capita demand would remain constant. Multifamily units typically use less water than single-family units; new homes on smaller lots also use less water compared with the regional average. With the trend to more multi-family units as a proportion of new builds, the data need to be analysed to determine per-capita demand trends more accurately. For example, the City of Edmonton found that new sub-divisions used 15% less water that the city average.

The Master Plan assumed there was little opportunity for reducing per-capita demand through demand-management measures. Considering how far the region is above the Canadian average demand, more can and should be done. If we are to face milder, wetter winters, longer and drier summers and more variable precipitation with climate change, we can’t rely solely on expanding our water sources as the means of meeting demand. Climate change requires a multifaceted response to how we use water.

Jack Hull Saanich