Numbered companies have applied for a series of over 34 licenses to extract water in four inlets on BC's central coast and bottle it for sale on global markets. The proposed projects target the majestic Bute Inlet and the adjoining Jarvis, Knight and Toba inlets.
This project rings alarm bells on Quadra Island loud enough to be heard in Victoria! Consider just two of our concerns:
How will the watershed be impacted by so many water-intensive projects being proposed? Between the bottled water licenses and the proposed power projects, there could be some form of industrial activity at every river and creek flowing into Bute Inlet.
We are already experiencing drier summers with reduced in-stream flows due to global warming. Protecting water flows for ecosystem health, agriculture and community drinking water is more important than ever.
Sierra Quadra and Sierra Malaspina, along with Friends of Bute Inlet, the Watershed Sentinel, and other groups in the region, are calling on BC’s Environment Minister, Murray Coell, to order a full environmental assessment of a connected set of applications for water and land rights on at least 34 streams. Read the press release.
Read the article in the Times Colonist.
"What's happening to the Bute today could well happen to Similkameen River, Okanagan Lake or the Sacred Headwaters tomorrow - because our century-old Water Act did not protect water as the precious resource that it is," said Sierra Club BC's Managing Director Susan Howatt.
