Editor’s note: This story elaborates on an original breaking news post from Aug. 29.
Ten years after bringing new connections to a halt, Salt Spring Island’s largest water district is gently lifting its foot off the brakes.
The North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) board of trustees voted Thursday, Aug. 29 to propose adding the water-draw equivalent of as many as 300 multi-family dwelling connections — although on only the south side of the district, at least for now.
NSSWD’s infrastructure comprises two separate water systems, which get supply from two lakes — Maxwell and St. Mary — serving what the district said is currently 1,856 water connections and approximately 5,500 users. After an extensive new supply reliability assessment, consultants and district staff found the latest advanced climate models supported adding more connections on the Maxwell Lake side.
Noting the numerous reliability reports that had been done in the past decade, NSSWD board chair Brian Pyper emphasized how the latest distinguished itself — comprehensive, he said, district-wide, and heavy on the science.
“We’re talking about [analysis] across numerous global circulation models, as opposed to the simplistic approaches that were previously used,” said Pyper. “The future water supply in our current study was assessed using monthly temperature and precipitation projections all the way up to the year 2100, across an ensemble of six global circulation models. This is getting us really close to the best available science, and recognized approaches to tackling this kind of issue.”
Despite the upcoming weir-raising on St. Mary Lake at Duck Creek — a $10-million project funded by the province — those models also indicated that the northern section of NSSWD’s system will be hard-pressed to support its existing connection commitments with high reliability every year — at least, on its own.
So trustees Thursday also conditionally approved a plan to connect the north to the south, through an upgrade on the Crofton Pump Station across from Country Grocer. That would join them into one large water system, with a target completion of the end of 2026, and would require completing the planned dissolved air flotation (DAF) plant for the Maxwell Lake system and aligning the two lakes’ water treatment.
Island Health has mandated that plant be built as part of an effort to remove more of Maxwell Lake’s organic matter, which reacts with chlorine treatment to create trihalomethanes (THMs) such as chloroform and bromodichloromethane. St. Mary Lake already has a DAF plant. The cost for that new Maxwell Lake system — and interest on any required borrowing to complete it — is significant and would be borne by ratepayers, although it could be partially offset by money collected on new connection fees.
Once linked, according to NSSWD CAO Mark Boysen, the combined system would be more resilient and adaptable to shifting climate patterns, population growth and use changes the island could see in the coming decades.
That two-lake team-up is part of a suite of proposed system improvements, which include some that could boost water supply across the district: exploring an increase in diversion flows from Rippon Creek into Maxwell Lake, and — after significant study and senior government approval — reducing the environmental flow requirements for fish-spawning purposes at Duck Creek.
The broader implications of new water connections on Salt Spring Island were not lost upon NSSWD’s board and staff, who noted the new projections of supply availability in the Maxwell Lake system could help ameliorate the housing crisis, particularly in Ganges. A 2022 Capital Regional District (CRD) study indicated an immediate need at that time of roughly 300 housing units, notably the same number of new connections proposed.
Water availability has been a stumbling block for affordable housing projects within the NSSWD in the last 10 years, as they need to prove secure water availability in order to proceed. The Islands Trust Policy Statement also explicitly requires Local Trust Committees curtail new density in areas where freshwater supply is “likely to be inadequate or unsustainable.”
New connection requests will still have to meet all Islands Trust zoning and CRD building permit requirements, according to staff.
NSSWD trustees and staff also plan to roll out a new quarterly public reporting process, where any new connections and system capacity would be carefully monitored over the coming months, as well as an updated series of studies in 2027 to confirm the effects of both new connections and system upgrades.
In the meantime, the moratorium on new connections for the St. Mary Lake side will remain in place, and the district will launch a public engagement process this fall for feedback from ratepayers and residents, as well as a legal review of the proposed policy change in November.
“We’ll also be communicating with our partners,” said Boysen, “because this is a significant change to the island. So we’ll be working with the province, the Islands Trust and the CRD to make sure that they are informed about the ramifications of this potential change — and get feedback from them as a part of the process.”
A final revision to the moratorium policy could be presented to the board as soon as December. For more information visit northsaltspringwaterworks.ca/moratorium-review.