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Thursday, February 9, 2012

More Questions About Water

From the West Coast Vancouver Island Aquatic Management Board Sept 7 2006 :

"After a week of wild rumor, panic and daily media scrums Tofino's water crisis has stabilized, at least for the time being. On Friday, September 1st Mayor John Fraser announced that businesses could remain open over the Labour Day weekend and into the coming weeks on the condition that the community as a whole uses no more than 250,000 gallons of municipal water per day until further notice. In a warning sent out to all business owners, if the consumption exceeds the 250,000 gal/day limit, "the District will provide three hours notice that commercial users must shut down or have their service disconnected."

At an emergency council meeting August 31st in Tofino, Mayor Fraser said that water consumption had been between 450,000 and 500,000 gallons per day with peaks at 600,000 gallons. Meanwhile, water levels in the supply creeks located on Meares had dropped significantly and was no longer servicing the demand. In an interview September 4th, Mayor Fraser said that figures he had regarding water flow on August 31st were from the town engineer, since then government hydrology reports have shown that the flow was not quite as low as originally thought and is in fact approximately 470,000 gallons/day, but still unsustainable at the pre-crisis consumption levels."

In 2006,the Ahkmahksis Water Treatment Facility hadn't yet been built and the Close Creek system wasn't functioning and yet the District of Tofino could still supply 250,000 gallons a day from #1 and Sharp Creek in the middle of a drought.
In 2012 with the Ahkmahksis Water Treatment Facility functioning and supplying the area south of Industrial Way ,the District of Tofino said yesterday in its Press Release
"With low turbidity readings at Close Creek, declining storage at the Bay Street reservoir day by day, and increased water demand at the fish processing plant, the Engineer recommended that the system be brought back online on Friday, February 1, 2012."
If we are that dependent on Close Creek in 2012 in the rainy season and are seeing declining levels in the Bay St reservoir without it, perhaps someone should check the output of Sharp Creek and Number One Creek ??
This information should be readily available and could be posted on the District website. Let's have the truth with regards to our water system !

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