{"id":143765,"date":"2025-09-14T17:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T17:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143765\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T17:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T17:32:09","slug":"how-can-the-comox-valley-improve-its-water-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143765\/","title":{"rendered":"How can the Comox Valley improve its water use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver Island is heating up and drying out. This spring, the Island was facing a Level 3 drought. Currently, the eastern part of the Island, including the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley, is in a Level 2 drought, according to\u00a0BC\u2019s drought portal.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drought levels are measured zero through five, with zero meaning normal or wetter than normal, level one meaning abnormally dry, and level two and up meaning severity and dryness are increasing, with 5 being the most extreme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, Vancouver Island\u2019s snowpack for the same year was\u00a0measured at 39 per cent<\/a>\u00a0of what it normally is. For Vancouver Islanders, these alarming conditions are resulting in many communities rethinking how to manage water use, and the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0is no exception.<\/p>\n

On May 1 of each year, the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Regional District (CVRD) automatically shifts into Stage 1 water restrictions, and then to Stage 2 water restrictions on July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These restrictions\u00a0regulate water usage<\/a>\u00a0in the region to varying levels, mainly by restricting the hours and days that residents are allowed to use sprinklers for lawns or gardens. The more stringent Stage 3 and Stage 4 water restrictions may be implemented at specific times throughout the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But some residents think the regional district and the municipalities could be doing more to conserve and better manage water in the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley, and some legal experts still think B.C. has a long way to go if it wants to be better prepared for a changing climate.<\/p>\n

Where does\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u2019s water come from?<\/p>\n

\"\"The Comox Valley Water Pollution Control Centre is a sewage treatment centre located in Comox. It serves the communities of Courtenay, Comox, K\u2019\u00f3moks First Nation, and CFB Comox. Photo by Madeline Dunnett\/The Discourse<\/p>\n

For the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley, all of its water sources are in areas that were stewarded for thousands of years by ancestors of the K\u2019\u00f3moks First Nation \u2014 descendants of the Sathloot, Sasitla, Ieeksen, Xa\u2019xe tribes and Pentlatch people. Many areas within the CVRD, such as the Puntledge and Tsolum River get their namesakes from the \u00c9y7\u00e17juuthem, Kwak\u0313wala and P\u0259ntl\u2019\u00e1\u010d languages.<\/p>\n

Serving about 50,000 people, the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Water System draws water from\u00a0Comox\u00a0Lake, which then flows through various different pumping stations and reservoirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0its website<\/a>, the regional district provides water to the City of Courtenay, Town of\u00a0Comox\u00a0and the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Water Local Service Area. These entities then operate and maintain the bulk water they receive.<\/p>\n

The CVRD also operates four other water systems within the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley: the Black Creek-Oyster Bay Water System, Graham Lake Water System, Royston Water System and Union Bay Water System.<\/p>\n

Currently, K\u2019\u00f3moks First Nation receives its water from the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Regional District Water system as well as some allocated water from the Puntledge River to Puntledge Reserve #2.<\/p>\n

For many municipalities, water and sewer facilities eat up a significant amount of the annual budget, and\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0from the non-profit BC Water & Waste Association shows that most municipal water rates do not cover the full cost of providing water and wastewater services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the City of Courtenay\u2019s director of finance, Adam Langenmaier, the city purchased water from the regional district in 2024 at a rate of $1 per cubic meter, with $6.3 million budgeted for water purchases and approximately $6.29 million of that being spent on those purchases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the addition of sewage utilities, the total cost for water and sewage use totalled $19.51 million in 2024.<\/p>\n

Deborah Curran, law professor and executive director of the University of Victoria\u2019s Environmental Law Centre, told The Discourse that the costs all lie in treating the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the number one kind of historical giant elephant in the room that hasn\u2019t been addressed because we are extracting water from Indigenous territories with no recognition for those nations in whose territory we extract the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does the CVRD decide to restrict water use?<\/p>\n

Kris La Rose, senior manager of water and wastewater for\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Regional District, said the automatic shifts to Stage 1 and 2 water restrictions began in 2024 for the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0Water system, and was previously in place for the other local water systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stage 1 restrictions allow lawn and garden sprinkling but only during certain hours and days. Stage 2 is similar, but with a reduction of the number of days allowed for watering.<\/p>\n

He said the decision was in part due to historical averages, and in part due to feedback from the community about wanting to know what to expect for water restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a move that\u2019s evolved over time, to reflect the average conditions and make it predictable for people if they\u2019re going away on holiday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

La Rose said the conditions to increase to Stage 3 or 4 are based on the availability of water in each of the service areas.\u00a0Stage 3<\/a>\u00a0restricts any type of lawn or boulevard watering, as well as adding water to pools, hot tubs or decorative fountains, or washing a vehicle or boat with water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stage 4 restrictions<\/a>\u00a0would happen in a water emergency and restrict any use of water other than personal hygiene, drinking and food preparation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stage 4 is unlikely to happen often, according to La Rose, but still possible. \u201cLooking into the future, at some point it\u2019s likely to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has happened before as well.\u00a0In April 2019, the CVRD asked residents<\/a>\u00a0to restrict water use to run an emergency repair on a large water pipe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Lake-fed system, which is the biggest system, La Rose said those decisions are in part based on BC Hydro\u2019s decision on flows sent down the Puntledge River.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BC Hydro operates a power dam along the Puntledge River, which provides electricity to most of the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley.<\/p>\n

He said under the regional district\u2019s water license, the CVRD agreed to go up to Stage 3 restrictions if BC Hydro drops river flows to under 11.6 cubic metres per second, and to Stage 4 if they ever go below 5.7 cubic metres per second.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reasons for this are mainly to reduce the impact to fish in the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven our new water intake is in the deep part of the lake and is not threatened by water levels in\u00a0Comox\u00a0Lake, we are unlikely to shift to Stage 3 unless BC Hydro changes their flows down the river,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other than the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Lake Water System, all other systems are based entirely off of the amount of water supply in the reservoirs.<\/p>\n

Both Graham Lake, which is responsible for Denman Island\u2019s water, and Langley Lake, which is responsible for Union Bay\u2019s water, have dams. Those levels are monitored, and La Rose said the decision to shift to higher restrictions is made if those levels drop to a certain point.<\/p>\n

Black Creek\u2019s water draws off the Oyster River and groundwater wells. The community of Royston feeds off of Cumberland\u2019s water system and follows its restrictions.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cumberland\u2019s water comes from Cumberland Creek, Perseverance Creek and a groundwater source at Coal Creek Historic Park. Photo by Madeline Dunnett\/The Discourse<\/p>\n

La Rose said there isn\u2019t a single group of elected officials that makes these decisions around water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0CVRD\u2019s Water Committee<\/a>\u00a0is made up of directors from the entire region. The Black Creek Oyster Bay Committee is a collaboration between the CVRD and the Strathcona Regional District. In addition, the electoral area services committee governs those services falling entirely within the rural areas within the CVRD.<\/p>\n

Why are some residences metered and others are not?<\/p>\n

John Dacombe, who lives in east Courtenay, doesn\u2019t think the city is doing enough to restrict excessive water use and is concerned about the lack of equity in how water use is measured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Universal water metering is widely considered a key tool for conserving water as it can help reduce water consumption by\u00a030 per cent<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As such, within the CVRD (outside Courtenay,\u00a0Comox\u00a0and Cumberland), residential and commercial buildings use water meters that measure the amount of water used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean home and business owners in the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0are paying for the amount of water they actually use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0many municipalities across B.C<\/a>., Courtenay charges flat rates for water provided to single-family homes, no matter how much they use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a real lack of appetite politically in the city of Courtenay to require or implement meters,\u201d La Rose said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has changed, and I understand that the city is bringing forward a business case this year to make the case for a universal metering program.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C. trails behind other provinces in terms of water meter coverage, according to a 2016\u00a0municipal water survey<\/a>\u00a0conducted by the University of British Columbia\u2019s Water Planning Lab. About 36 per cent of single-family water connections were metered in 2016.<\/p>\n

In May, the province announced a water meter pilot to cover installation costs for 19 smaller communities so they can \u201ctrack and manage water use and mitigate the impact of drought, while giving people confidence that they are only paying for what they use,\u201d according to a\u00a0news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flat rates are calculated in part to\u00a0cover the cost of service<\/a>\u00a0and the need for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.<\/p>\n

Rodney Armstrong, manager of utilities and operational services for the City of Courtenay, confirmed with The Discourse that multi-unit buildings, which are defined by three or more units, pay the metered rate and that single residential dwellings and other properties without meters all pay the same flat rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

La Rose said that new homes in the City of Courtenay do not need to put a meter in, but are required to install the infrastructure needed to put a meter in in the future, and that \u201call multi-family and commercial dwellings are required to have a meter in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dacombe would like to see everyone pay for the water they consume. He said he pays a flat rate in his single-family home in the\u00a0Valley\u00a0View neighbourhood, and doesn\u2019t think that is fair, especially considering many single-family homes are in more affluent areas of the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m literally watching water run down my street in the middle of a drought,\u201d he said, referring to watching lawn watering and car washing as the water pours down the local storm drains.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the only resident concerned about this. In response to an Aug. 28\u00a0post on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0made by The Discourse reporter Madeline Dunnett asking how residents feel about water restrictions, more than a dozen people responded with various concerns about how the regional district and its encompassing communities manage water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it equitable. Why do some houses have meters while many do not?\u201d wrote Facebook user Lyle Pierce.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoodness \u2026 let\u2019s start with metering and having each user pay for their consumption! Any conversation about restrictions is ridiculous in a community that does not pay for what they use,\u201d wrote Facebook user Camille Douglas.<\/p>\n

For 2025, single-family homes paid $624 per year for water utilities. Multi-residential buildings inside the City of Courtenay pay a fee of $92.64 for the first 48 cubic meters per quarter, and then another $1.93 for every cubic meter once those units surpass 48 cubic meters per quarter, according to\u00a0documents<\/a>\u00a0from the City of Courtenay.<\/p>\n

La Rose said he does not think the current combination of flat and measured rates is necessarily unfair because it depends on the specifics of the rates, but that he does think it would be \u201ca lot easier to enforce water conservation and to incentivize people to minimize their water consumption if they were paying volumetrically.\u201d<\/p>\n

How strict is the enforcement?<\/p>\n

In recent years,\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0residents have been asked to restrict water use and some residents expressed concern about seeing sprinklers running during Stage 3 water restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dacombe said he wants to see more enforcement of water use restrictions, adding that he doesn\u2019t think enough tickets are issued for those not following the orders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the City of Courtenay\u2019s website, the city issued 287 watering infractions, including 37 repeat offences, in 2024. \u201cMost infractions were related to residential lawn watering,\u201d\u00a0the release states<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the city clarified in a\u00a0Facebook comment response<\/a>\u00a0to Dacombe that of those 37 repeat offences, no fines were attached.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s efforts have typically been on seeking compliance through an education and outreach program, with any fines issued at the discretion of the bylaw team,\u201d the city stated.<\/p>\n

The city did state that it changed its approach to enforcement as of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile compliance through education and outreach will continue to be the priority, fines will be levied after residents have received one prior warning,\u201d the city stated in the same Facebook comment.<\/p>\n

La Rose confirmed that the regional district has noticed issues with non-compliance from residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the CVRD, La Rose said each municipality has its own enforcement for the way they ticket water, but added that the regional district has \u201cgiven out hundreds of tickets that do get paid over the past several years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn more recent years, we\u2019ve been a little bit more enforcement-based, giving out more tickets. I think everybody\u2019s stepping up their game in terms of enforcement. We\u2019ll be holding steady on that,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Dacombe, he wants to see more action, noting that he\u2019s seen many people ignore water use restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a complete absence of any substantial enforcement,\u201d Dacombe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What can be done?<\/p>\n

Curran, the executive director of the University of Victoria\u2019s Environmental Law Centre, told The Discourse that B.C. has a long way to go when it comes to water conservation and management.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really haven\u2019t even started in B.C. to meaningfully implement water conservation policies and restrictions that result in freeing up of water,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in this era of climate change, so we\u2019re going to get more rain in the winter, and then we\u2019re going to get drier periods in the summer. And this is particularly true for the east coast of Vancouver Island, of which the\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u00a0is a part,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curran said a big part of this shift towards more water conservation is creating a culture that values water conservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this sense of, oh, we live on the West Coast, there\u2019s tons of water,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Comox\u00a0Valley\u2019s water is fed in part by the snowpack \u2014 a resource that is on the decline.<\/p>\n

Curran clarified that although there is a lot of water in the winter months, the summers are continuing to dry up, and that people need to change the way they use water depending on the season.<\/p>\n

She said a \u201creally easy fix\u201d would be banning lawn watering during summer months.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, why do we need green lawns? You could simply free up that amount of water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another suggestion Curran shared is implementing different rate structures for different volumes of water use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have a low cost rate structure for what a family of four would normally or five would normally use in a month, and then anything above that, you\u2019d be charged a lot more per unit,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What this does, she explained, is maintain the affordability of water for a regular water user \u2014 such as a family using water to brush their teeth, cook, shower and use the bathroom. For excessive water users, such as those who have a pool, those homes would pay much more.<\/p>\n

Curran said the two-tier system alongside imposing maximum water limits would also ensure that wealthy individuals who can afford excess water don\u2019t go into too much excess.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not new concepts,\u201d she added. \u201cThey\u2019re very well proven and borne out globally, water policy measures that local governments have entirely within their authority to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dacombe is also a fan of this system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to be a pretty reasonable compromise,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also has tools he uses at home to reduce his own water usage \u2014 a soaker hose, a low-flow toilet, and he collects rainwater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curran says those things are great, but she thinks the pressure should be on municipalities, because it can\u2019t only be up to the individual to choose how they control water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Individuals collecting rainwater] is so small-scale, you need a lot of storage to collect rainwater to then water your lawn for the summer,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that we have these community-wide water systems, and so requiring an individual to have their own storage might not make a whole lot of sense, because we\u2019re thinking on a community-wide basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dacombe said he is curious about whether some communities in the province have water management dialled down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curran said there are some promising projects currently involving partnerships with First Nations and local governments.<\/p>\n

For example, the District of Peachland is working with the West Bank First Nation and the Penticton Indian Band to deal with water quality in the creek where they take drinking water.<\/p>\n

In the Okanagan,<\/a>\u00a0the Okanagan Nation Alliance has convened a process where the chiefs in the region and all the mayors have come together to create a water responsibility plan for the Okanagan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, Cowichan Tribes and B.C. signed a\u00a0first-of-its-kind water sustainability plan<\/a>\u00a0to reimagine land and water management.<\/p>\n

Curran added that these community initiatives have occurred as a result of communities wanting to see homegrown solutions to water scarcity and other water issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to seeing how those approaches turn out, because there\u2019s a lot of creativity and innovation at the local level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver Island is heating up and drying out. This spring, the Island was facing a Level 3 drought.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-143765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}