This water tank has been leaking for more than eight years. I know it is just a small leak but WTF ?
The District of Tofino has told us not to water our plants or use water outdoors but continues to ignore this.
In the last 14 years , the District of Tofino has added only 100,000 gallons of additional storage. In that same time , demand has rapidly increased.
The District of Tofino used to publish daily water usage numbers but will no longer do so . Why not ? There is no significant precipitation in the 7 day forecast.
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29 comments:
Plants look healthy below the leak
A friend has a leak in yard that originates from district pipe on road. Small stream flows through his yard. District knows about it and hasn't fixed despite it being an easy fix. The word sustainability is a joke in this town.
Our situation with infrastructure brings to mind the decline of the Roman empire.
for a few hundred years the Roman government kept the roads and infrastructure in good shape so their armies could charge around the European continent and kick some butt and collect taxes.
but the populace grew fat and lazy and wanted to be entertained and given free bread. The infrastructure was therefore neglected and things fell apart. The far tribes that had been easy to conquer and extract taxes from rebelled and came to threaten Rome.
It was pretty well game over for the Roman empire all because the government neglected the infrastructure and wasted its energy and resources on bread and circuses - cute sidewalk pavers, expensive seating areas for tourists, buses and bike paths, consultants, and a few other waste money and energy projects. Meanwhile Rome burns because there's no water to put out a fire.
a stitch in time saves nine.
A tale of mismanagement
The DOT water report last year was all against storage. So you are correct Ralph. They have done nothing for storage, the simplest short term improvement, but also offered No options on increasing supply, the obvious long term necessity.
The report was so against municipal storage that it recommended homeowners who want to water their garden in the summer buy their own tank and capture and "store" rainwater off their roof. WTF is that. Isn,t that "storage"
This is what they call "progressive" thinking, but not some emergency measure. So individuals are to fend for themselves, spend there own money and "store" water for the dry periods, but municipal "storage", spending collectively( I would say more effectively) makes no sense. WTF..... So we get a thousand little tanks with rainwater storage systems. Costing millions of dollars.
We could also require folks to truck in their own drinking water to a separate tank on their property to save municipal supplies. So why don't we do that too??? You can even suck water out of the ground in many parts of Tofino. They used to call them wells, with your own pressure tank and pump.
Some folks are proud of their little storage tanks... good for them.....But if we want to go down that rabbit hole.... if each user had their own composting unit for their effluent.....then we wouldn't need a municipal sewer system either....wouldn't need a municipal government at all...Everyone just fends for themselves. Hey council you are fired.
Hey wait, isn't that what we did. Back before the DOT ORDERED us to remove our septic tanks and separate water supplies and support the brand new municipal system. Yes that is exactly what the DOT did.....about 38 years ago.. at town hall they called it progress.
Sounds like the instructions I was once given about how to park the car......" You just go ahead and back up"
A tale of mismanagement
The DOT water report last year was all against storage. So you are correct Ralph. They have done nothing for storage, the simplest short term improvement, but also offered No options on increasing supply, the obvious long term necessity.
The report was so against municipal storage that it recommended homeowners who want to water their garden in the summer buy their own tank and capture and "store" rainwater off their roof. WTF is that. Isn,t that "storage"
This is what they call "progressive" thinking, but not some emergency measure. So individuals are to fend for themselves, spend there own money and "store" water for the dry periods, but municipal "storage", spending collectively( I would say more effectively) makes no sense. WTF..... So we get a thousand little tanks with rainwater storage systems. Costing millions of dollars.
We could also require folks to truck in their own drinking water to a separate tank on their property to save municipal supplies. So why don't we do that too??? You can even suck water out of the ground in many parts of Tofino. They used to call them wells, with your own pressure tank and pump.
Some folks are proud of their little storage tanks... good for them.....But if we want to go down that rabbit hole.... if each user had their own composting unit for their effluent.....then we wouldn't need a municipal sewer system either....wouldn't need a municipal government at all...Everyone just fends for themselves. Hey council you are fired.
Hey wait, isn't that what we did. Back before the DOT ORDERED us to remove our septic tanks and separate water supplies and support the brand new municipal system. Yes that is exactly what the DOT did.....about 38 years ago.. at town hall they called it progress.
Sounds like the instructions I was once given about how to park the car......" You just go ahead and back up"
A tale of mismanagement
The DOT water report last year was all against storage. So you are correct Ralph. They have done nothing for storage, the simplest short term improvement, but also offered No options on increasing supply, the obvious long term necessity.
The report was so against municipal storage that it recommended homeowners who want to water their garden in the summer buy their own tank and capture and "store" rainwater off their roof. WTF is that. Isn,t that "storage"
This is what they call "progressive" thinking, but not some emergency measure. So individuals are to fend for themselves, spend there own money and "store" water for the dry periods, but municipal "storage", spending collectively( I would say more effectively) makes no sense. WTF..... So we get a thousand little tanks with rainwater storage systems. Costing millions of dollars.
We could also require folks to truck in their own drinking water to a separate tank on their property to save municipal supplies. So why don't we do that too??? You can even suck water out of the ground in many parts of Tofino. They used to call them wells, with your own pressure tank and pump.
Some folks are proud of their little storage tanks... good for them.....But if we want to go down that rabbit hole.... if each user had their own composting unit for their effluent.....then we wouldn't need a municipal sewer system either....wouldn't need a municipal government at all...Everyone just fends for themselves. Hey council you are fired.
Hey wait, isn't that what we did. Back before the DOT ORDERED us to remove our septic tanks and separate water supplies and support the brand new municipal system. Yes that is exactly what the DOT did.....about 38 years ago.. at town hall they called it progress.
Sounds like the instructions I was once given about how to park the car......" You just go ahead and back up"
A tale of mismanagement
The DOT water report last year was all against storage. So you are correct Ralph. They have done nothing for storage, the simplest short term improvement, but also offered No options on increasing supply, the obvious long term necessity.
The report was so against municipal storage that it recommended homeowners who want to water their garden in the summer buy their own tank and capture and "store" rainwater off their roof. WTF is that. Isn,t that "storage"
This is what they call "progressive" thinking, but not some emergency measure. So individuals are to fend for themselves, spend there own money and "store" water for the dry periods, but municipal "storage", spending collectively( I would say more effectively) makes no sense. WTF..... So we get a thousand little tanks with rainwater storage systems. Costing millions of dollars.
We could also require folks to truck in their own drinking water to a separate tank on their property to save municipal supplies. So why don't we do that too??? You can even suck water out of the ground in many parts of Tofino. They used to call them wells, with your own pressure tank and pump.
Some folks are proud of their little storage tanks... good for them.....But if we want to go down that rabbit hole.... if each user had their own composting unit for their effluent.....then we wouldn't need a municipal sewer system either....wouldn't need a municipal government at all...Everyone just fends for themselves. Hey council you are fired.
Hey wait, isn't that what we did. Back before the DOT ORDERED us to remove our septic tanks and separate water supplies and support the brand new municipal system. Yes that is exactly what the DOT did.....about 38 years ago.. at town hall they called it progress.
Sounds like the instructions I was once given about how to park the car......" You just go ahead and back up"
unfortunately the romans didn't have the brainstorm of pay parking to waste money energy and resources on.......but they did publicly execute incompetent rulers with irate taxpayer mobs.....
Council has done nothing in 15 years plus, to get more water. Every year we bite our nails hoping to make it through the summer. Somehow it is easier and OK to use a lack of water as a reason for not approving housing development. Just get more water...
Tofino Councils have adopted the religious approach to water supply. Hoping God will sort it all out.
you gotta remember sustainable development means no development.
At this point the C and I levy that was driven into place shortly after the last water crisis seems to be money missing and misdirected? ... how much has been collected since its inception? Where is the infrastructure it was supposed to pay for ? We don't have a water shortage problem, we have an infrastructure [water storage] problem.
Does the entire community plan need to be revisited? It seems like we've reached the point where we now have, just barely, enough water to supply existing needs. If we stop all development, both residential and commercial, we can continue on as things are indefinately.
The existing landowners will continue to make handsome profits, and the current status quo will remain unchanged: Wealthy landowners and indentured servants as tenants.
However, if we choose to add more housing, more commercial outlets, more apartments and condos and places to live (Thousands of people want to move here to live), then we'll need to increase the water supply. That will cost money, and the current landowners are going to object to paying for it, so they're going to delay it.
And we can't get these "new" people to pay until they're here and ready to start paying development fees and taxes. So there's the politics of funding.... But the increase in population and business activity would eventually pay for the water improvements, but over decades. It's a project of great scope in many areas: Planning, construction, environmental issues, financing, stakeholders concerns, lots more.
But first, We the community must decide, Do we want to continue to sell the illusion of a "quaint west coast village", and leave things alone? Or do we want to develop and densify and expand? Have we reached the point where the OCP needs revisiting?
its all about climate change and global warming. if you don't start driving a tesla you are making our water situation worse. this isn't about a planetary temperature fluctuation....this is because of your thoughtless attitude about recycling. etc etc. you colonists ruin everything.
You can't afford to increase the water supply unless you also increase the tax base, by increasing development and economic activity.
You can't increase development and economic activity unless you increase the water supply.
There's enough water supply to cover current needs? Maybe, up until now. Climate change is real, there's not going to be enough in the future. Tofino's water supply is going to be a difficult problem to solve, and the problem is going to become more complex and more urgent as time passes. August drought 2023 is coming, watch this!! No water!! OK, maybe not this year. Maybe.
A mayor and six councillors sitting on their hands and doing nothing, and dreaming that it'll just go away is NOT the solution to this issue.
No rain in the seven day forecast.
From the District website : Leaking toilets and hose connections waste water every second. In some cases, fixing one leak can reduce a home's water use (and utility bill) by up to 20% in one simple step.
Check your faucets, showers, and toilets for leaks, and you could go a long way to ensuring that our water is for drinking – not wasting.
Fix leaks for:
Outdoor fixtures; including irrigation systems, ponds, fountains, and water features
Indoor appliances and plumbing fixtures; including heating and cooling devices
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/tofino/most-yearly-precipitation
Check your toilet tanks for leaking by placing some food colouring in the tank. Don't have food colouring, use black coffee. Come back to the toilet in an hour and if the colour is in the tank, it is leaking.
Without using the colourants many leaks will not show up.
I've got an illegal rain water plumbed toilet. The rainwater storage tank dropped a huge amount in a short time earlier this year, basically emptying itself.
However if the town runs out of water it will be available for use at $5 a flush to those who ask and can pay.
Everyone should be going outside and checking their water meters regularly. Turn off everything in the residence and go and see if the water meter is still spinning. All the old water pipes supplying residences, like the rest of the infrastructure of this town, are failing.
Ralph that chart is revealing. Only year with less rainfall here was 1958 when the province didn't really get rain from January through August as I understand. It was described as the year the province burned. However the importance of it cannot be forgotten as it shows we could be in the middle or perhaps the beginning of a similar total drought year.
Experts, Experts everywhere and not a drop of water to drink!
the new waste water treatment plant is a surely needed improvement however no one seems to recognize the need for water to make it operate properly. It's great if we treat the waste water from Esowista and Opitsaht but it seems to me the district may need to add water for things to function as expected. its not a problem right now although it points to the need for more water.
rain dances will not guarantee water.
Climate change, Climate Change, Climate Change.
Tofino ran out of water when Fraser was Mayor, not his fault but that was when?, 15- 18 years ago. The Tofino system is extremely fragile. It is not based on some large watershed from which we take a small percentage. It is based on a very small watershed from which, at times, we take near 100% This makes it very vulnerable to running out n a bad stretch
When the Federal government invested money into the Tofino water system(TIDSA, Tourist industry Development Subsidiary Agreement) in the 1980's, it was for promoting tourism. At the time, the "Village" of Tofino had less than 1000 souls and tourism was a very small part of the economy. It was not imagined that we would supply water for what? a million tourists a year?,(whatever the number is now) No one imagined washing wet suits, hot tubs, breweries let alone the number of showers, and toilets flushing.
In a way, the town has managed these sparse reserves quite well, but the writing is on the wall, the town needs a more reliable supply to avoid constant scarcity, or outright disaster.
The growth of water demand has far exceeded what was planned for.
Climate change? a bad year? It doesn't matter the DOT needs more water.
Short term there can be more storage. The aversion to more storage is counter to the history of water development around the world. A lake is water storage. Constructing a dam is water storage. Every major water system uses water storage to buffer the supply
Tofino has small dams to collect water. Can they be improved? Can we store more water in reservoirs man made or natural. The answer is a probable to outright yes. But This will only buy time. Ten years... twenty years. The long term solution is a regioal water supply, for the whole west coast, from the biggest natural resevoir of fresh water on Vancouver island. Kennedy lake. The fresh water supply from Kennedy lake exceeds the water supply of Victoria, Nanaimo and Courtenay combined.
If climate change is real, we need more water. If this year is a bad year due to the natural fluctuation of weather patterns, we need more water. What is the plan? I don't see one.....
"Nothing to fear. Icebergs are not known this far south.......Captain of the Titanic
No rain in the next 14 days forecast
I was told by a professional who should know that the water from Kennedy lake isn't actually very good and there are lots of issues with using the lake as a water supply, since so much other activity occurs there.
But, not to fear, there are other smaller rivers that feed into the Sound that could supply excellent quality water. It's just a matter of distance, and hence costs.
It can be done.
the water quality of Kennedy lake is fine. maybe the same expert professional who said Tofino doesn't need any more water storage.
At least we will be able to play pickle ball on the new 1.5 million dollar court!
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