The board for Salt Spring’s largest water district might’ve just threaded several needles at once.
There is an undeniable elegance on display as the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) begins the decision-making phase of what has been two years of moratorium review. First and obviously, the proposal to add hundreds of new connections to the Maxwell Lake side of its system over the next two years will certainly please anyone there who’s waiting on water to start building.
The move will surely warm the hearts of those wanting to see more housing on the island, and the exhaustive nature of the supply studies involved should satisfy anyone worried there wasn’t enough water in the first place.
But the district’s parallel monitor-and-report program — and a seeming willingness to throttle back new connections if data arises to support that action — should also soothe concerns from anyone thinking floodgates are being irrevocably opened.
The plan to join the Maxwell Lake and St. Mary Lake sides of the system should delight those interested in redundancy and resilience. The completion of a new treatment plant at Maxwell Lake should gratify system users who prefer fewer trihalomethanes in their drinking water.
And on that new plant, budget hawks bracing for their next tax levy can’t have missed that adding those 300 connections — at arguably five figures apiece, by the time all the pipes are hooked up — could have a helpful impact on how much ratepayers will wind up paying each year as they chip away at plant construction costs.
Meanwhile, policy wonks who champion increasing density where it’s already dense should be happy to hear it’s the Ganges area where most new connections would be for now. And anyone who thinks there haven’t been enough studies is also in luck, because staff say more are being penciled in as we speak.
You can’t please everyone, of course, but the impression we’re left with is one of district leadership working thoughtfully to balance the diverse, often-contradictory interests of our island community. That’s a superb place to start.