DUNCAN – The province is facing pushback over its water management strategy following four fish protection orders this summer, a management tool that runs counter to its troubled groundwater licensing initiative. Two years ago, agricultural irrigators in the Kokilah River watershed became the first to have water access curtailed under Section 88 of the Water …
groundwater licencing
Water licensing process needs streamlining
KAMLOOPS – With a shocking lack of licences issued five years into BC’s groundwater licensing regime, the BC Cattlemen’s Association has sent the province a six-point action plan to forestall disaster next year. The province says it’s not going to be giving non-domestic groundwater users any more time to apply for a groundwater licence and …
Water licence angst
DUNCAN – It’s been more than three years since Ken Ellison applied for licences to draw water from the three wells on his farm in the Cowichan Valley as part of a new groundwater management regime introduced under the Water Sustainability Act in 2016. With water restrictions in his area becoming more common, the idea …
No extension for groundwater
Owners of existing non-domestic wells shouldn’t count on any further extensions of the province’s deadline for registering their wells and applying for a groundwater licence free of charge. “It is unlikely to change at this point,” said Maria Nguyen, a senior authorizations technician with FrontCounter BC, in a presentation at the Pacific Agriculture Show on …
Grower takes issue with groundwater limits
OLIVER – When Hans Buchler and his wife bought the land for their 18 acres of vineyard almost 40 years ago, one of the attractions was the water. “There is a good well on the property, which was important,” he says. “When I talked to the district of Oliver, they told me it would be …