BLACK CREEK – Water challenges are still top of mind for Vancouver Island growers despite a wet fall, and they say the province needs to make it easier to capture and store the liquid wealth for future growing seasons.
While the province has committed $100 million to the Agricultural Water Infrastructure Program for on-farm water storage and related projects, conflicting regulations have created confusion for producers.
Meanwhile, thousands of groundwater applications remain backlogged at the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (WLRS), which has stepped up compliance and enforcement efforts this year.
Nursery operators and blueberry growers in the Fraser Valley as well as farms on Vancouver Island received visits this summer from natural resource officers investigating water use.
Under the Water Sustainability Act, existing groundwater users had to apply for groundwater licences by March 1, 2022. The province expected to license extractions from an estimated 20,000 wells, but just over 8,000 applications have been received to date.
Of these, fewer than 2,500 licences were issued by mid-November, with 575 applications abandoned for a variety of reasons.
Many producers say the application process has been confusing, stressful and sometimes expensive, and many have yet to receive licences despite being subject to annual fees for groundwater use.
The confusion and frustration came to a head in 2023 in Westwold, when Sec. 88 fish protection orders under the Water Sustainability Act shut down forage irrigation. BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food staff responded with drought and water management workshops, but some producers say they’re still receiving conflicting information.
“I’ve got a pamphlet from the Ministry of Agriculture from a seminar I went to and they’re telling you, ‘Go ahead, dig a pond, you can do this, you don’t need a licence,’” a Comox Valley producer says, requesting anonymity because of heightened concerns over provincial enforcement efforts. “The same day I was at a meeting with WLRS where they shut a farmer down and were offering them a fine.”
In August, Fiona McQuillan of Merville’s Fireweed Farmstead hosted a ministry-run field day showcasing her irrigation pond for use in field vegetable and greenhouse production.
She considers her family fortunate in having access to water because they’ve come close to needing to turn off the taps in the summer even with designated storage capacity.
“It was one of the reasons why we purchased the farm, because it had a very large irrigation pond,” McQuillan says, who bought the farm eight years ago with her husband Jens.
They have layers, pastured pigs and three commercial hoop houses for fruit and vegetable production on six acres.
“From the drought, we’ve been worried, we’ve been scared, but we’ve been okay,” McQuillan says.
She is concerned about the province issuing curtailment orders at the peak of summer when her plants have flowered, and fruit is on the vine. The farm is located in the Tsolum watershed, which was one of four areas where forage irrigation was shut down last year, but irrigation of fruit and vegetable crops continued to be allowed.
“If you stop irrigating then, you’re going to have some serious crop loss. We’re just in uncharted territory and every summer is going to come with the serious potential for a really seriously negative outcome.”
While the government is working to improve communication with producers on agricultural water management through workshops, specific information is needed for individual farms.
“Did anybody walk away from that with a ton of great information? No,” McQuillan says of the field day on her farm. “I’ve been through a lot of these government seminars and honestly, I don’t really feel l… I’ve really learned something that’s going to make a huge difference.”
Farmers want to implement efficiency upgrades, improve production and continue to be viable. But many tools and techniques cost money.
“You can do drip irrigation and timed irrigation and be super-careful, but if we keep going into droughts, we’ll get to a point where we just can’t grow it unless we invest in infrastructure that honestly we cannot afford,” McQuillan says. “You can talk blue in the face, but if we simply can’t afford the system, then it does nothing for us.”
She would like to see seminars backed with capital investments into farms to kick-start projects along with faster water licence approvals for farmers.
WLRS says it’s taken 1,055 days to issue decisions to date from the time applications were first submitted. Most of that time was spent waiting for staff to take a look at it. Once in the hands of a water officer, processing has taken an average of 289 days.
McQuillan submitted her licence application in 2021 but has yet to receive a decision.
WLRS staff say processing times have improved following the formation of a task force this past spring to clear the thousands of backlogged applications, but progress remains slow.
The current processing rate is 70 decisions a month, versus 32 prior to last February.
Word of mouth
Jaclyn Kirby in Black Creek learned about groundwater licensing through conversations with other local producers. She began leasing a quarter acre on an old farm property in 2021 and launched Yellow Boot Farm.
But because she was new to the land and it was a new business, she needed to apply as a new user. She gathered the required information, paid the $250 application fee and was prepared to submit the paperwork.
WLRS told Kirby she could apply if she wanted but would not be approved because she is on an aquifer of concern.
“How can a new farm start up if you’re not going to supply anyone with any water licences?” she asks.
A dugout is not an option for Kirby because the hole would take up valuable production space.
Consequently, Kirby has turned to dryland farming and has been running pilots through Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the Oregon-based Dry Farming Institute and identified crops that can survive with minimal inputs even during the driest of Augusts.
For the little water she needs, Kirby credits the landowners for installing a rainwater capture system.
“If I had to set that up on my own, I would have just quit. I don’t have an extra $10,000 to get all the infrastructure, learn how it works, maintain it all,” she says.
To help others, Kirby and KPU have hosted two on-farm workshops and plan to host more next year.
With files from Peter Mitham
Popham back as ag minister