This Newsletter is published quarterly, March, June, September and December by the B. C. Ground Water Association. For more information please contact: Secretary Treasurer, Joan Perry, 1708 - 197 A Street, Langley, B. C. V2Z 1K2 Phone or Fax: 604-530-8934

Archived Newsletters:

Click here for the BC Government Document: NEW STANDARDS TAKE EFFECT FOR PRIVATE WELL OWNERS

Click here to download the PDF file of an important update on Ground Water Protection Regulation (GWPR) from the BC Ministry of Environment. (updated Sept 17, 2007)

Click here to download a PDF brochure for an intensive two-day short course on Aquifer Testing For Improved Hydrogeologic Site Characterization August 26 & 27 2008.

September 2008 Newsletter

President’s Address

The President is away on a holiday/ working vacation in Europe. Enjoy your single malts and gowf, Remi! Remi and Pina are probably enjoying a round of golf in Scotland right about now!

*****

RESPONSE TO MOE REPORT IN OUR JUNE NEWSLETTER

In our last newsletter, the MOE Report mentioned the inspection of a residential development site on Vancouver Island to determine if the well seals were in compliance with the regulations. MOE staff inspected a total of five wells none of which were completed with well seals. The registered qualified well driller responsible for construction, (at the ministry’s request), voluntarily retrofitted all five wells with surface seals acceptable to the MOE.

The incident was discovered during inspections carried out as part of an ongoing program being conducted by MOE across the province. During this program MOE staff is accompanying qualified pump installers when they install pitless units and expose the surface seal. We further understand that the MOE is not able to release the name of the offending driller in accordance with the “Privacy/Freedom of Information Act” provisions. Investigations by others indicated that this driller is a member of the BCGWA.

Following a flurry of emails and discussions between directors of the BCGWA, it is disappointing to many of us that the consequence for this act was not more significant.

The BCGWA initiated and has strongly supported the formation of regulations since the early 1990’s.The resulting regulations are intended to improve our industry by “raising the bar” on a number of activities including well construction quality. In this case, by not following the regulations, the driller responsible may have jeopardized the health of the consumers using not one but five wells. The MOE has informed the author that had a ticket or fine been levied to an offending company, the company would have been identified. However, since the “request” to retrofit the wells was made to an “individual”, in accordance with the MOE registry, the name cannot be released.

It is disappointing that more punitive measures were not instilled upon the driller. It is known that the vast majority of our membership support and follow the regulations. However this incident identifies the need for the MOE to be highly active in their inspection of well construction and other potential avoidances of the requirements, the BCGWA have worked so hard to support. We trust that in the future the MOE will act with a more suitable consequence for violations of the regulations that they are responsible for enforcing.

I invite comments from members on the issue of consequences for regulation offenders.

Bruce Ingimundson
Secretary

***

Plan to Attend:
1-Day Seminar, September 15th, 2008

Water Well Performance: The Economic Basis for Water Well Operation, Rehabilitation & Maintenance Decisions.

This workshop should be very valuable to those who own and manage wells and water systems, and those that do work on and advise system owners/operators. If you have any clients or associates who could benefit from this workshop, please pass the information on to them, and try and attend yourself.

Where: Langley, B.C.
Monday, September 15th, 2008
The Coast Hotel & Convention Centre-Cascades Casino and Hotel
20393 Fraser Highway, Langley

This program is presented by the American Ground Water Trust in cooperation with The B.C. Ground Water Association.
There is an excellent slate of presenters for this program and great topics and therefore the EOCP can recognize the program for 0.6 Continuing Education Units.

Please view the program and registration details at: http://www.agwt.org/workshops.htm

***

Membership Complaint

We have received several complaints lately from members of our association that a sales representative has been suggesting during telephone conversations that his company is associated or supported by the BC Ground Water Association.

The name of the Company is STP or Specialty Technical Publishers. Apparently, someone from this company sends out materials along with an invoice that was unexpected.

BCGWA does not endorse STP, and if any of their products arrive, do not accept if sent by courier, or mark “return to sender”.

On contacting the Company, they were surprised to learn of this tactic by one of their sales reps and will try to determine who may have suggested this affiliation and address it immediately.

Again, it is a story of buyer beware!

***
There are 3 types of people: Those that make it happen; those that watch it happen; and those who sit around and say-“What the Heck’s happening?”

Raising the Bar!

I’ve come to the conclusion; we don’t need pump installers, we need professional water system technicians to construct, service and repair water systems.

Any fool can install a pump in a well and make it pump water. The trick is to construct safe water systems that protect our water resource. Problems arise when the cost to construct a safe water system built to code costs more than the customer is willing to pay or expects to pay. The cost would not be the issue if people were to consider the cost of keeping our water safe but fools often don’t think that far ahead.

Our problem is we have all become fools who will bow to market pressure and give the customer what he asks for. Some say the customer is always right. I’m beginning to believe the customer is the problem. Customers will often price shop us contractors until one of us will play the fool for him. (Perhaps this was the problem with our non-compliant driller.)

Good regulations are supposed to level the playing field, and protect us from customers and ourselves. Currently there is no paper trail, no reports to file, no record of who has done the job, and no help with the customer who is simply looking for the cheapest fool. Every pump having to be installed by a licensed installer is never going to happen. There is no way to police it without spending more than it is worth.

We also need to talk about well tests for real estate transactions. We are a very non-professional industry. Every contractor has a different standard and uses different terms so we confuse the issues. If we could define a well yield versus a well evaluation it would help.

When the customer asks for a well yield test and wants to know how many gal/min the well will do, and the realtor says my client can get this report for $200 from “X” contractor, we often become the fool because we want new customers. We pump the well for one hour and divide by 60 to equal gpm-right? That’s what the fool is doing. A professional hydrologist would never go near this report and it is next to worthless yet it happens all the time.

The CMHC letter to the bank asks for a Well Yield certificate. What does this mean? There is no clear definition as to what the people at the bank should be looking for. The bank also ask for a Potability certificate. Do we have clear parameters of what this means? If I, as a professional, certify something, I’m saying it is a fact. Are we prepared to say a well provides safe drinking water with one bacteria test result and no other chemical tests, no site inspection or previous history?

Last week I worked on two water systems. Both had cisterns, both did not have the vermin proof lids, both had mouse traps in the rooms. One has had to fish dead mice out of the cistern. So what do you think, is the water safe? The water was tested at time of real estate transaction and it passed. The paper work says it is safe. The contractor did a well test and the report has no mention of any hazards. The second system is a new mining camp of 15+ people with new camp trailers etc. The water level float switch is mounted in the cistern access hole in such a way that the lid can’t be screwed back on. It was left that way. This is a water system where public health should be looking I thought?? Also the UV should be a Class A system with a lock out. This had no lock out. Filters were installed before the pressure switch and they were so plugged the pump would not start and no tag on the well. Not much was done properly. Extremely non-compliant in my estimation and there is not much I can do except fix someone else’s mistakes.

Lots of fools – not much professionalism. I wonder how we are to compete with such substandard workmanship. You see we are too expensive when we do it right the first time.

To quote Albert Einstein, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” The Ombudsman’s report raises a lot of good points. My question is, are we going to make the regulations bigger and more complex or are we going to step back and really look at what has failed and try to improve things without spending a fortune on it?

Certification is not the answer. Knowing that someone will keep a record and collect reports will correct a lot of the problems. I don’t think we need to give Public Health a lot more money but they need to be held accountable. The contractors need to be held accountable and most important so do our customers. We need to look at this as an Association and get our act together.

Peter Epp
Cariboo Director

****

Membership Changes

Well Drilling Contractors:

Okanagan Kootenay Well
Drilling Ltd.
R.R.#1, 6624 Sidley Mountain Road
Bridesville, B.C. V0H 1B0
Ph: 250-446-2195
Fax: 250-446-2194
Rep: Dylan Kelly

Wild West Drilling
1063 Simmons Road
Creston, B.C. V0B 1G7
Rep: Chris Barling
Ph: 250-428-0137
cell: 403-860-5243
email: ncanadiana@aol.com

M&S Division:

Heron Instruments Inc. - web address www.heroninstruments.com

Ground Water Canada Magazine
has relocated
Annex Publishing & Printing Inc.
30 Stoneridge Cresscent
Ilderton, Ontario N0M 2A0
Ph: 519-420-7710
Fax: 519-429-3094
email: cskalkos@annexweb.com
Rep: Chris Skalkos

Associate Members:

Marcel Parent
4962-197 A Street
Langley, B. C. V3A 6W1
Ph: 604-530-2142
e.mail: mparent57@yahoo.ca

***
Fraser Valley Regional Meeting

Jim Clark, Director, has arranged a Fraser Valley Regional meeting for Saturday, October 4th at 9:00 am. at the West Country Hotel in Langley.

The main focus of the meeting will be flowing wells and mainly what to do with the several thousand 2” wells that were installed in the early 1920’s.

Bert Williams started drilling 2” wells in 1921 and was active until 1953 when his son Fenn took over. Fenn is now in his 80’s and is doing well after recovering from a mild stroke a few months ago. Jim will be inviting Fenn to the meeting to enlighten us all on the “Williams” era of well drilling. Fenn is the key person of knowledge to these old time wells that are the greatest problem for the region’s ground water depletion.

Please plan to attend this important meeting.

***

This is the first of the Fall Regional Meetings that has been called. Directors, please arrange for a meeting in your area to be held in the next couple of months.

***

If your outgo exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall.

People with bad coughs never go to Doctors - they go to movies!

***
Upcoming Events

September 15, 2008
American Ground Water Trust
Water Well Performance Workshop
Coast Hotel & Convention Centre, Langley, B.C.
8:15 am – 5:00 pm - includes lunch.

Small Water Users Association of BC

The Small Water Users Association of BC will be sponsoring a series of one day workshops for small water systems in the fall of 2008, in partnership with the Regional Health Authorities. Operators, owners and managers are all welcome to attend the workshops. Each workshop is expected to qualify for 0.6 CEUs for operators interested in maintaining their EOCP certification. The dates and locations for the workshops are as follows:

September 18 108 Mile House
October 20 Campbell River
October 22 Duncan
October 27 Abbotsford

Workshop invitations and agendas will be sent to water systems sometime in August or early September. In the meantime anyone interested in attending any these workshops or desiring more information is invited to contact Denny Ross-Smith at the Small Water Users Association of BC as follows.

e.mail: smallwaterusers@shaw.ca
Ph: 250-825-4308
Address: 4167 Highway 3A
Nelson, B. C.
V1L 6N7

***

Writing Exams

Are there any companies who have employees that would be interested in writing the water well drillers exam or the pump installers exam before the March convention?

If there are a significant amount of candidates (8-10) it may be possible to arrange a test date. This would take place in the Prince George area.

Please contact the office with any names so we could try and arrange this extra writing for you.

Joan Perry
Secretary

***

B. C. Aims to Cut Water Use

British Columbians at all levels are being asked to get serious about water use in the face of population growth and climate change, and to help meet a provincial target of improving water efficiency by one-third by 2020.

The Living Water Smart plan unveiled by the province sets a wide range of goals that include mandatory low-flow toilets in new homes, the expansion of municipal water meters and the need for greater efficiency through improved farming practices such as irrigation.

“We know a change is upon us, and we have to prepare for that change,” Environment Minister Barry Penner said in an interview. “We have to stop taking water for granted. I don’t have a magic wand to create more.”
The water plan even includes a requirement that school students get to know a local stream and assess its health as a way of connecting youths with the natural—and not just technological—world.

“I’m concerned about an increasing urban disconnect from nature, “Penner said. “It’s particularly acute for young people who get their mental and physical stimulation through artificial means such as video games.”

The government expects B.C.’s population to increase by 1.4 million people over the next 25 years, putting added pressure on water resources already stressed by global warming.

The government blueprint for dealing with water issues includes fast-tracking green developments requiring provincial environmental approvals, recognizing water-flow requirements for ecosystems and species, and a Green Building Code requiring water conservation plumbing fixtures such as low-flow toilets.

Shane Simpson, the NDP’s environment critic, said in response that most of the initiatives won’t take effect until 2012 and do nothing to address environmental problems associated with hundreds of run-of-the-river independent power projects across the province.

He called for a moratorium on such projects and for regional planners to consider the cumulative impacts of such projects as well as considering the opinion of other water users and municipal governments.

B. C. Agriculture Council chair Garnet Etsell said he supports the plan’s goal of ensuring farmers access to water while encouraging the sector to be more efficient. But he noted the plan largely sets out principles, and that he cannot render a final opinion on the document until he sees more details of how it will be implemented.

Mark Angelo, rivers chair of the Outdoor Recreation Council of B. C., said he hopes the plan can find a balance between the human and ecological needs of rivers. Rivers such as the Coldwater near Merritt have routinely made the council’s list of top-10 most endangered rivers due in large part to agriculture’s excessive extraction of water.

Angelo also supports the report’s potential for decommissioning dams to enhance certain watersheds, saying he supports removal of the McIntyre Dam on the Okanagan River to benefit salmon stocks.

Other highlights of the plan:

- $100 million for flood protection over 10 years to help communities manage flood losses.

- Working with the federal government to ensure the quality of drinking water in all aboriginal communities meets provincial standards by 2015.

- 50 percent of new municipal water needs to be acquired through conservation by 2020.

- Providing summer jobs for youth aged 16 to 22 to undertake stream restoration projects.

- Expanding British Columbia’s hydrometric and other climate-related networks.

- Limiting all new licences to 40-year terms in areas where there is high demand and pressure on water.

Larry Pynn Vancouver Sun
June 4, 2008
Communique

***

Climate Change

I know that you have heard it all before, but the prophesies of the 1000 climate scientists from the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are 90% certain that climate change is happening as a result of human activity, are coming true at a rate faster than predicted. A 4,500 year old ice shelf in the Canadian arctic disappeared this summer, the 3rd hurricane in less than a month is set to slam into the South East US later this week, and it appears that once again we will have record low returns of salmon into our South West river systems, and the Pine beetle devastation is epic. Some say that this “Environmental Gun” that is pointed at the heads of our children and grandchildren is not loaded. And perhaps they are right. Maybe there is only a 50% chance that our children’s future is in peril, maybe there is only a 10% chance that the gun is loaded, but even if there is only a 1% risk, would we not take any opportunity to protect their lives and future, would we continue to believe that there is such things as “Sustainable Growth” or “Smart Growth”, continue to treat our air and water like a garbage dump.

We have a chance to remove the finger from the trigger in this coming Federal election. Harper has set 2050 (42 years from now) as a date for serious CO2 reductions. Many experts feel we have less than 100 months from now (less than 10 years), in which to institute drastic changes. The clock is ticking, the tipping point (trigger) may soon be reached, and what if? Just what if it turns out the gun really is loaded?

Climate Action News
www.climateactionnetwork.ca
(sent in by David Slade)

***

Small Steps

Even though 70 per sent of the planet is covered by water, less than one per cent is available for human use. In Canada, five to 10 per cent of homes are losing 340 litres of water a day through leaks. Natural Resources Canada says that water is a finite resource. The good news is that it’s indeed possible to use nearly a third less water by making some simple changes in our homes.

water saving tips, visit:
www.watersavingtips.org/saving.html

Despite the fact that all the water pumped into our homes is drinkable, on average only two per cent of the water we use is water we actually drink. Leaving the water running for even 14 seconds, while brushing your teeth, for example, can waste 64 ounces-or equivalent to the eight glasses of water we’re encouraged to drink each day.

David Suzuki
www.davidsuzuki.org

****

Too busy to be Effective?

Just because you appear to be working does not mean you are an effective and efficient worker.

From the minute you get to work until the time you drag yourself home at the end of the day, you’re busy, busy.

Are you, however, effective? There’s a difference.

“When you’re busy, you’re doing things haphazardly and randomly. When you’re effective, you’re doing things that are helping you meet your objectives,” said Robert Paris, a consultant and trainer with Groupe Synapse, which specializes in management and leadership training.

While that avalanche of e.mails, phone calls and chats with co-workers might look urgent as it demands your attention and keeps you busy, it might not be important, Paris said.

“People often make the mistake of focusing on the urgent and so spend the bulk of their day being busy. But they’re not achieving anything.”

There’s a key difference between people who are busy and those who are effective.

“Effective people understand the big picture of their companies and of their departments. They understand how they fit into the big picture. And they perform tasks that are related to the big picture.”

“By contrast, busy people have no sense of priority and might not understand what the bigger picture is and how they fit into it.”

Being effective, said Randall Craig, a Toronto management consultant with Pinetree Advisors, “means you’re attaining your objectives. When you’re busy all the time, you need to ask yourself what the value is of the work you’re doing.?”

Busyness he said, “is about work effort, the time you spend working.”

“For instance, an analyst might spend all his time doing analysis. He might get so into the task that he spends five hours doing it instead of the requisite two hours it really takes. He’s busy but not necessarily using his time effectively.”

Craig says there’s pressure in many workplaces to “appear busy all the time and that can get in the way of effectiveness.”

He says that many jobs require reflection and the luxury of time to think.

“In many workplaces, though, you’re expected to think on your feet while you’re doing things,” he said. “If you take time to think quietly before you act, you can be perceived as not busy.”

To be effective, he said, “you have to have an objective. It’s easy to set an objective if you’re in sales. You have a quota.”

But people who have jobs that lack such tangible goals should consult their managers about creating a benchmark, he said.
“As you perform, ask yourself if you’re meeting your goal. If you do, you’ve been effective.”

Busyness is different, Craig said.

“As a salesperson, you could be busy making cold calls when networking would be better. That’s keeping busy, but you’re not being effective.”

Distinguishing between busyness and effectiveness can be particularly difficult for entrepreneurs, said Pat Snow, a professional business coach. Because many entrepreneurs work alone while ramping up their businesses, they juggle all the tasks required to run their companies. The problem is, said Snow, who coaches established entrepreneurs and those setting up new businesses, “many complain that they’re busy all the time and that they don’t have time to tackle big projects in their businesses. They say they’ll do it next week, but next week comes and goes by. These are successful people but everything is out of control.”

In order to become effective, Snow said, entrepreneurs should spend time working on their businesses rather than in them.

“Many entrepreneurs tend to be a one-man show and often they don’t realize that the business has outgrown their ability to run every element themselves,” she said.

Delegating work is one way they can stop being busy and start being effective.

“You need to take a step back from your business in order to create strategies for the future. Without a clear vision, entrepreneurs may not recognize when big changes are taking place in their markets and they can get blindsided.”

Snow says because entrepreneurs start as solo employees in their own businesses, delegating work to others can feel unnatural.

“An entrepreneur needs to be clear that the person he’s delegating to can do good enough work. And then, he needs to decide which tasks are the ones that only he or she can do.”

It’s not just owners of small businesses who have difficulty delegating to become more effective, Snow said.

“I met someone who had a company of 100 employees. He was a control freak. But when he finally realized he didn’t have to control everything and could delegate work, his business tripled. His employees were able to do the jobs.” He had, she said, made the transition from busily juggling work that others could do to running his business effectively.

The Vancouver Sun
September 6, 2008

***

Water or Coke?

Water

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the world population)

#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.

#3. Even mild dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism by 3%.

#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing.

#8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink everyday?

Coke

#1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

#2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.

#3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the ‘real thing’ sit for one hour then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

#4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

#5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

#6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

#7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

#8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into the load of greasy clothes, and detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For your information:

#1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.

#2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (the concentrate) the commercial trucks must use a hazardous material place card reserved for highly corrosive materials.

#3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water? or Coke?

***

Water Fight
Tap vs Bottled

Metro Vancouver hopes to get the taps flowing this fall with an aggressive campaign to drink water from the tap rather than the bottle.

The campaign, which will run under the banner “nature’s health drink – always on tap,” is expected to coincide with the opening of the region’s new filtration water system later this year, and boost the number of Metro residents drinking tap water by 20 percent by 2010.

The push will effectively pit Metro Vancouver against water-bottling companies, which have used the public’s thirst to be trendy and its fear of poor water quality, turbidity and water-borne diseases to help sell its product over the past 30 years.

Gara Hay, vice-president of operations for Canadian Springs, said bottled water tasted better, is convenient and “there’s a mistrust of tap water.” He noted the taste of chlorine, along with problems of turbidity, may go away, but they haven’t been forgotten by residents of Metro Vancouver.

There’s an endless supply here of fresh, pure, clean water. We’ve kind of forgotten that because there’s been a market campaign for bottled water that’s made people apprehensive about tap water.

Metro Vancouver still has to hash out the cost and plan for the campaign, which is aimed at promoting the health benefits of the region’s tap water, while debunking some of the marketing slogans flogged by bottled water providers to hook consumers.

Concerns over water-borne diseases such as an E.coli outbreak inWalkerton, Ontario that killed seven people in 2000 and boil-water advisories-such as one in Metro Vancouver in 2006 that led to a public frenzy for bottled water-have also fuelled the bottled-water rage.

But the region’s clean water, along with the economical and environmental impacts of turning on the tap, will convince consumers to reverse the trend. We have to get out there aggressively.

Health-wise, you cannot get better water than we’ve got in Vancouver. With bottled water you have no assurances where it comes from. It could have come from a tap or from Alabama.

Bottle water producers insist they won’t be pulled into a slanging-match with Metro Vancouver, saying their product will remain a popular commodity because it has the necessary minerals and is clean and free of chlorine and sediment.

They noted their industry continues to grow despite a strong environmental movement to rid the world of plastic and concerns from environmental groups about the high cost of energy needed to produce the plastic bottles, fill them up, ship them, and eventually dispose of them.

A litre of bottled water now costs more than a litre of gas. Yet, an estimated 10 million water bottles are dumped every year in B. C. landfills, according to the B.C. Water and Wastewater Association.

No matter what the government does, convenience, taste and trust will get people buying bottled water. “People have long memories. They still have ill feelings toward tap water.”

This is true for a Vancouver resident, who said he has no problem drinking tap water himself, but draws the line at giving it to his two children. Even though it’s inconvenient to buy water, he said, he regularly stocks up.

“A lot of the pipes are old and some of the sediment gets into the water,” he said. “I can drink tap water but my babies can’t.”

However, Vancouver’s new chief medical health officer, Dr. Patrician Daly, insists Metro Vancouver has a “pristine water source here that tasted good and is safe to drink” and it doesn’t make sense for people to buy water. But, she noted, the region will have to ensure tap water is available for people when they’re on the road, at fountains, recreation centers and other locations to make it more convenient.

Why on earth, when it costs so much more and there’s no benefit, why do people actually buy it? You can see the possibility-I’m thirsty and there’s no fountain around.

Environmental Health policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation, said it may be an uphill battle, but Vancouver is on the right track. Despite “water scares” such as the E.coli outbreak in Walkerton the environmental impacts on the region from bottled water are huge, from the use of petrochemicals in the bottle production to the energy used to fill up and transport the water.

Mike Nolan president of the Water and Wastewater Association, said the trend is changing-and students in colleges and universities are spearheading the move to get young and old to choose tap water over bottled products.

One of the biggest challenges is educating Metro Vancouver’s ethnic communities that the region’s water is drinkable. Many residents, particularly those from China and India, prefer bottled water because the tap and well water in their homelands often is not safe. We have to gear this big education campaign towards these folks.

For some consumers, the filtration plant, which the region says will eliminate occasional turbidity in the water, could be enough to make them switch.

Despite the push to reduce the consumption of bottled water in Metro Vancouver, we are far from the biggest drinkers of bottled water worldwide.

Europe leads the pack in bottled water consumption, swallowing a total of 27.7 billion litres per year. It’s followed by the United States with an estimated total consumption of 11 billion litres, then Asia, Latin America and Canada.

We’re very fortunate in Canada that both tap water and bottled water is safe, but it comes down to an individual consumer choice.

David Hogben
The Vancouver Sun

****

Report from the Ministry of Environment

Greetings! We hope that everyone managed to get out and enjoy the nice summer weather. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know what has been going on since the last newsletter.

WELLS Database Update – (by Lindsay Macfarlane, Sr. Ground Water Data Technician, Victoria)

Two well data contractors have been working since mid June to spatially locate water well records from the backlog. They have been funded by Agri-Food Canada through the Canada-British Columbia Water Supply Expansion Program, through a partnership project initiated by the BCGWA and the Ministry. To-date they have located approximately 1080 well records. These records will be made available through WELLS and the BC Water Resources Atlas.

Through the work being done by the well data contractors and our auxiliary staff in Victoria we are continuing to see improvement in the backlog of well records. In the past four months we have seen a decrease of over 1860 unlocated well records. That means that more well records are spatially viewable through the BC Water Resources Atlas (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/data_searches/wrbc/index.html) and usable to well drillers through the WELLS Database. We will keep you posted on work being done to help reduce our backlog of well records.

*The number of records in ministry possession may fluctuate over time, as the count of non-filed records from the backlog is an estimate.

EWELLS – Online Electronic Submission of Well Records (By Lindsay Macfarlane, Sr. Ground Water Data Technician, Victoria)

There are currently 5 well drilling companies that use EWELLS on a regular basis. We have received approximately 173 records submitted through EWELLS.

If any companies are interested in training on EWELLS please contact Lindsay Macfarlane at (250) 953-3408 or Lindsay.Macfarlane@gov.bc.ca . Training can be done at your office during slow times.

Provincial Observation Well Network Review (By Kevin Ronneseth, Ground Water Hydrologist, Victoria)

The Ministry of Environment (MoE) currently operates 146 observation wells in the Province. They are mostly located in the southern half of BC in major developed groundwater regions. Water levels are monitored in these observation wells to understand local and regional hydrogeological processes and characteristics to support and provide data to allow impact of groundwater development to be assessed.

The observation well levels are beneficial to a water well driller. This data may indicate to the driller changes in available drawdown. Water level data for observation wells can be found on the MoE website at: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/data_searches/obswell/index.html. Observation wells can be located by place name (e.g. community, island), well tag number or BCGS map sheet number.

MoE is conducting a province-wide review of the Provincial Observation Well Network. A pilot review of the Okanagan Valley Basin observation well network was conducted two years ago. Based on the success and value received from the Okanagan project, the Ministry decided to conduct a province-wide review.

The observation well network was established in 1961. Since that time the network has evolved in many ways. Originally, levels were monitored manually by ministry staff or community “observers”. In recent years, most of the wells in the network have been instrumented with automated data collection devices which continuously monitor the change in water level in an individual well. Some sites have been equipped with cellular telemetric equipment to allow for remote monitoring.

The observation well data are used by groundwater staff, groundwater consultants, environmental researchers, other government agencies, community groups and water suppliers to assess trends in groundwater levels in various aquifers across the province.

Historically, observation wells have been installed to accomplish a single monitoring objective or several objectives and these monitoring objectives may change or have changed over time. Site conditions may also have changed so that a site is no longer suitable for collection of data to meet a particular monitoring objective. Some sites may be redundant; while new sites or instruments may be needed and some regions may suffer from a lack of observation wells. Issues such as the impact of climate change, population growth, geothermal development, coal bed methane, rapid deforestation due to pine beetle infestation, or groundwater-surface water interactions may require strategically placed observation wells to be developed.

This review project is expected to enhance our ability to clearly determine the relevance of new and existing observation wells, ensure both provincial and regional goals are met, provide regional continuity in the selection of new observation well sites, better optimize staff time and resources, and allow the observation well network to achieve the best possible scientific value to protect and sustain the groundwater resource in a cost-effective manner. It is expected that the observation well network review will be completed in the Spring of 2009.

Staff Updates (By Mike Wei, P. Eng., Head Groundwater and Aquifer Science Section, Victoria)

Sylvia Kenny (Ground Water Officer in Nanaimo) is taking a leave of absence to pursue her Master's Degree in Hydrogeology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, starting this Fall. Jillian Kelly, a recent graduate from Royal Roads University, has been hired to fill in Sylvia's position while Sylvia is on education leave. Also starting his studies for a Master's Degree in Hydrogeology at SFU is Mike Simpson (Ground Water Officer in Surrey); Mike, however, will still be working part time for Water Stewardship.

Trina Koch has recently resigned from MOE and has taken up a position as environmental coordinator with Kal-Tire in Vernon. Trina, thank you for all your work on the North Okanagan Project and best wishes. We are looking for a replacement for Trina's position.