Several times over the last five years, when Haley Bassett has turned on the taps at her family\u2019s farm near Dawson Creek, nothing has come out. When she checks her well, the water filter is clogged with black sand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of many strange changes she’s noticed around the property her grandparents began farming in the 1960s, as deep-seated drought takes hold of the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I just have huge piles of sand in my yard that was pumped out of my well,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Much of northeastern B.C. is in severe or extreme drought, which has dried up rivers, stressed reservoirs and forced local governments to restrict water use.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bassets says crop yields are thinning, trees are dying prematurely and weeds like Canada thistle have exploded. Winter winds at times blow more dust instead of snow.<\/p>\n
She worries about how much longer her well will hold out, and what\u2019s being done to protect the water that feeds it.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m bracing for the day I will have no water.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762248142_611_default.jpg\")
Haley Bassett says her water filter has been clogged with black sand numerous times over the last five years as deep-seated drought takes hold of northeastern B.C. (Submitted by Haley Bassett)Advocates call for higher rates, stronger oversight<\/p>\n
Her concerns\u00a0are shared by advocacy groups that say provincial policy continues to undervalue its water resources as the province pushes to expand major projects, from mining to LNG to AI data centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they\u2019re paying right now is horrendously low,\u201d said Kiki Wood, a campaigner for Stand.earth, one of two environmental groups that have called on the province to\u00a0increase industrial water rates\u00a0<\/a>in recent weeks.<\/p>\n At $2.25 per million litres, B.C.\u2019s industrial water rate is the lowest in Canada, far below the $54 to $179 charged by other provinces, according to\u00a0a recent report\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0from the B.C. Watershed Security Coalition calling for the same change.<\/p>\n CBC News requested an interview with Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill. Instead, Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix, speaking on behalf of the B.C. government, defended the province\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery licence is reviewed and controlled. Streamflow levels are very important,\u201d Dix said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the B.C. Energy Regulator does in every case. In other words, puts the environment and human health first.\u201d<\/p>\n He said B.C.\u2019s water management framework remains \u201cthe most rigorous” in North America, developed from scientific advice provided by an expert panel in 2018.<\/p>\n The Watershed Security Coalition says B.C. industries are authorized to draw about 2.6 trillion litres of water annually, roughly equal to what 27 million people use in a year. <\/p>\n It adds that the province collects $400 million a year in water rental fees, “nearly all of this from hydropower generation.” It says raising rates in line with other provinces could generate an extra $100 million annually, money that could be reinvested in watershed protection.<\/p>\n \u201cSurely there is a price that really puts the proper value on that resource,\u201d said Wood. \u201cIncreasing provincial revenues for resources that industry is using feels really practical, really urgent and really smart.\u201d<\/p>\n In the northeast, industry demand for water is on the rise. <\/p>\n Public filings from the B.C. Energy Regulator show withdrawals by oil and companies have increased sharply in recent years, from 3.6 million cubic metres (3.6 billion litres) in 2017<\/a> to just over nine million cubic metres (9 billion litres) in 2024<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roughly half that water went to fracking, with the rest used for pipeline commissioning, dust control, equipment washing and other work \u201cwhere much of the water is returned to the water cycle,\u201d the regulator said.<\/p>\n Withdrawals are routinely suspended during droughts, including on the Kiskatinaw River, where restrictions have been in place since spring 2023, the regulator said, adding that about 68 per cent of water used for fracking in B.C. is now reused wastewater.<\/p>\n The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers echoed those figures.<\/p>\n \u201cThese efforts are particularly important given the region\u2019s sensitivity to drought and the need to balance industrial, environmental and community water needs,\u201d said Richard Wong, the association’s vice-president of regulatory and operations.<\/p>\n \u2018Deeply exploitative\u2019<\/p>\n But Bassett isn’t reassured.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s what they say and then there\u2019s what we\u2019re experiencing and seeing with our own eyes, right?” she said. “And those things do not line up.”<\/p>\n She says nearby communities like Dawson Creek, which has declared a\u00a0state of emergency\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0and wants the province to\u00a0fast-track a $100-million pipeline\u00a0<\/a>and new water supply, is proof of just how stretched local water supplies have become.<\/p>\n She believes industry should be paying more for water, especially as nearby communities face shortages.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy does industry need that kind of deal from us?\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not seeing the return. The amount of money that is extracted from this region and what this community sees in return, it\u2019s not right. It\u2019s exploitative, deeply exploitative.\u201d<\/p>\n Climate puts pressure on growth<\/p>\n Joseph Shea, an environment professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, said the Peace Region\u2019s snowpack was only\u00a076 per cent of normal\u00a0<\/a>this spring, and\u00a065 per cent<\/a>\u00a0in 2024. Earlier melts and hotter, drier summers are leaving little moisture to recharge rivers or groundwater.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really tough situation to get out of because you need to have a really good snowpack and then wet and cool summers repeatedly in order to reverse that drought,\u201d Shea said. \u201cClimate change is not making any of this easier.\u201d<\/p>\n He said careful management will be crucial as the province pursues new economic projects. Raising industrial rates could encourage more conservation and fund better monitoring.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s lots of questions and lots of gaps in what we actually understand about water across the province,\u201d he said. \u201cUnderstanding community water systems and the potential impacts and changes due to climate changes or increased demands on the water supply are going to become, I think, really big questions in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n Government \u2018asleep at the wheel\u2019<\/p>\n Back on her farm, Bassett is bracing for another dry winter. She worries government and industry won’t act fast enough to protect the region\u2019s water.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels as though our government at every level has been asleep at the wheel and allowed this problem to reach this point,” she said. <\/p>\n “They\u2019re just calling for more and more and more, and there is not enough water to sustain that amount of industry without completely leaving communities out in the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH | B.C. unveils new drought-tracking system: B.C. unveils new drought-tracking system <\/p>\n As the driest summer months approach, the B.C. government has unveiled a new system to track and report drought conditions in the province. The program will show how much water a community has stored for use and how well rivers and creeks are flowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several times over the last five years, when Haley Bassett has turned on the taps at her family\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-260727","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\/260727","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=260727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762248142_932_default.jpg\")
B.C. Minister of Energy Adrian Dix said the province’s industrial water policies for oil and gas companies are among ‘the most rigorous’ in North America, and based on scientific advice from a 2018 panel.\u00a0 (Dillon Hodgin\/CBC)Rising industrial use in northeast B.C.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762248143_485_default.jpg\")
Water levels along the Kiskatinaw River, seen here this fall, are at historical lows amid a drought across northeastern B.C. (Donald Hoffmann)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753309568_109_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n