FRONT PAGE

District manager feeling
optimistic on water supply issues

By Meg Olson

Point Roberts water district manager Dan Bourks is feeling optimistic after a meeting with state department of health officials to see if the district can grant more water connections without getting more water.

“They were really open and willing to work with us,” said Bourks following the August 18 water board meeting. “They just want to see how I’m juggling this water around and look at our domestic usage.” Bourks said district engineers would be submitting a proposal to the state asking for an additional 100 to 150 temporary new connections pending a comprehensive plan update. “That would take some of the heat off,” Bourks said.

The water district put a moratorium on new connections July 20 as the district faced a rush on new connections with only 25 left of the 2,050 the state allows the district to issue under the current comprehensive plan. The state bases the amount of connections allowed on the district’s physical and legal ability to provide water,” according to Derek Pell, assistant manager of the state’s northwest regional drinking water program. For Point Roberts, that limit is set by the amount of water available every day from the Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD) under the existing contract with the Canadian provider: 840,650 gallons. Looking at usage patterns and storage capacity, Pell said the state comes up with a required peak daily use per water connection, which is now 410 gallons for Point Roberts compared to the 800 gallons per residential unit the state recommends. The number for the Point can be lower, Pell said, because of the number of inactive and seasonal water connections. “Four hundred is on the low end,” he said, “There are some systems that come in lower but it’s pretty rare.” For 100 additional connections the state would have to accept a peak daily use number of 390 gallons.

Bourks said the option of getting increased supply from the GVWD would be explored after other options were pursued. “Sooner or later we will talk to Canada but we’ll wait until we hear back from the state,” Bourks said. He added the district was also working with hydrologists on the option of wells to supplement the water supply specifically to deal with the golf course’s irrigation needs during peak summer demand.

GVWD senior policy and planning engineer Stan Woods said would look at the possibility of revising the Point Roberts water contract when they received an official request to do so from the district. “We’re a wholesaler of water. We sell water,” he said. “We would treat Point Roberts water district like any other customer.” The difference is that Point Roberts is across an international border, buys water under a contract that requires federal and provincial legislation, and doesn’t have a seat on the GVWD board like the other lower mainland municipalities that buy water from the agency. The Point is also definitely the runt in the GVWD’s small handful of municipal water clients, using about three million gallons of water a year out of the GVWD’s 112 billion gallon annual average demand – less than a tenth of one percent.

Woods said depending on what the Point Roberts water district wanted changed in the contract the negotiations could require federal and provincial consultation, or it could be a simple local process. “Bulk export of water, there is some sensitivity to that,” he said. “There may be some solutions that require only minor changes that would not require federal and provincial approval. You have to look at the specifics.”