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“In August, the WHO and UNICEF released data showing that over the last decade 961 million people gained access to safe drinking water, 1.2 billion gained safe sanitation, and 1.5 billion gained basic hygiene services. Over the same period the number of people without electricity fell by 292 million, even as the global population grew by 760 million. According to the International Energy Agency, this represents the fastest expansion of electricity access in history.

Access to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene has risen to 74%, 58% and 80% of the world respectively. Together, these figures represent an historic advance in human health and dignity. Credit: WHO/UNICEF”

Tell them what you think we should spend money on More good news, we hope, is that CRD is asking people to review and comment on the (already approved but open to possible amendment, we hope) Capital Regional District (CRD) financial plan which outlines resources required to deliver services, initiatives and capital programs while adjusting to current conditions.

We have until almost the end of February 2026 to submit our comments. Whether we are heard and heeded is unknowable but if we do not send in our comments, we can know it is our own doing that we are not heeded. There are several ways to find it: https://getinvolved.crd.bc.ca/2026-financial-plan

606 WG thinks we should spend the money to keep infrastructure in good shape Taxes are never popular, but did anyone notice Calgary had yet another water supply emergency due to break in the supply lines? Below is the link to a written news clip and a link to a video that plays for about forty-five minutes. So it is faster to read the news than watch the video. https://globalnews.ca/news/11596393/calgary-water-main-break-jan-1-2026/

Note: in spite of the pleas of all the personnel involved for Calgarians to use as little water as possible, no drop in consumption was measured. Now they are on water restrictions, and some areas are on boil water advisories.

Another point to note is that the City of Calgary does not own the dam that holds back the Bearspaw Reservoir. The dam was completed in 1954 and that water line of concrete in 1975. Under “ideal conditions” the pipes can last as long as a hundred years, but a similar concrete pipe was used in Florida and blew open in 1979, only one year after it was put in. Decades later it was proven these pipes are prone to catastrophic failure but that was not known at the time Calgary’s system went in – and it is still in use, serving a much larger population. With more development comes more water and wear and the pipes, which are only reliable for about twenty years. 1975 was a lot more than twenty years ago. The Bearspaw Reservoir

606 WG thinks we also need to spend money on planning for our future needs We in 606 Water Group think we need to speak up about rural water areas in the CRD, especially since we have been told by several CRD employees that “we are only interested in the CRD water distribution service supply” or piped water. We hope they mean professionally as in “our responsibilities are concerned with piped water” and not that they do not care as humans. Do they realize where their water comes from? The CRD piped water delivery system comes from Sooke Lake Reservoir which is dependent on the local watersheds. The reservoir water comes from rain, fog, snowpack and the interflow from the ground which sources its water from the same precipitation.

There is a CRD Water Commission, but the majority of the members are not rural residents. Ask anyone in the area here about how much water is actually held in the aquifers and every answer will be different, except from those people who admit “We have no idea”. There are two active observation wells in the area, on Phillips Road: shallow well #469 which taps into the sand and gravel Aquifer 599 which was laid down as the Sooke River floodplain when the ice age glaciers melted and deep well #433 into Aquifer 606 which taps into a fracture in the bedrock aquifer. #443 is an active well but without real time data and #469 is active with real time data. The deep well into Aquifer 606 at the Sooke River is representative of that area only or even only that water vein and cannot represent the rest of the vast 606 Aquifer that stretches like a spider web from Colwood perhaps as far as Sombrio Point.

https://governmentofbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b53cb0bf3f6848e79d66ffd09b74f00d

We understand that drilling observation wells is costly, but we would be happy if stream flow and rainfall data was collected for our rural lands, green lands, and rural resource lands so that people can observe and monitor the changing climate and the watersheds, the water quality, the changes in the lands and report their findings. What we want is a Rural Water Commission or Watershed Board made up of experts and knowledgeable local people who will advocate for such monitoring and be involved in planning for water allocations based on knowledge, not guesses. The link below is one we included in August but it still important and clear in the benefits of local water commissions – before it is a climate emergency.

https://cowichanwatershedboard.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-09-WATERSHED-BOARD-CASE-FINAL-VERSION-digital-300.pdf

Yes, increased monitoring and adding a rural water commission would likely mean an increase in taxes but it would mean we would have a better understanding and record of the conditions here. The many watersheds have streams and creeks which are likely salmon bearing and they keep the areas moist and green- good potential firebreaks in case of wildfires, a growing threat here. Attached below is a coloured CRD map of the coastal watersheds in our area. https://www.crd.ca/media/file/watersheds-juan-de-fuca-ea-map-2015

“Sittin’ on the dock of the Bay” but not recently... Otis Redding’s song about San Francisco brings back memories for some of us but not this year. San Francisco had major floods in 1983 and 1997 as well. Watch out for flooding in 2045.

Every year there is a point in our trip around the sun where the earth is at its closest to the sun. It is called “perihelion.” (That means “close to the sun”.) It causes exceptionally high tides. We also get “perigean” tides. That means “close to the earth”, describing the position of the moon. We commonly talk about “super moons” when the moon is so close, and “king tides” when the alignment causes exceptionally high tides. They happen several times a year but are typically more dramatic during the winter, especially during storms.

Every so often—it is a predictable but not regularly scheduled event—the perihelion and the perigean occur at the same time: that happened on January 3, 2026. The result was the highest tide recorded since 2012, which was the last year this alignment of earth, sun and moon took place. People who went to have a look saw a demonstration of how our shores will look as sea levels rise.

With climate change and sea levels rising, maybe think twice before buying low bank waterfront even though the next perihelion event with a super moon is predicted to be in 2045. https://earthsky.org/earth/rare-alignment-of-earth-moon-and-sun-january-1-2-3-2026/

It isn’t just the moon raising the tides A bit of new science relating to sea levels and water generally is reported in a publication by a University of Arizona professor and associates, who state that the groundwater which has been stored as “fossil water”, perhaps for millions of years since the age of dinosaurs, has been pumped to the surface and is being used up at an alarming rate since the last century by humans, mostly for agriculture. The extra water—reintroduced to the surface—runs off into the oceans and is causing more sea water rise than the melting glaciers. Instead of being stored underground, that “fossil water” is now stored in the oceans and part of the “modern” water cycle. To listen to the broadcast from CBC’s Quirks and Quarks” click on the link. It is the second item but the first one on dinosaur vomit is interesting too. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-10-dino-vomit-new-species-9.7039706

Some rivers are wilder than others Rivers and streams may change course over time. There is a small company town in the Yukon called Faro which was an instant town built in 1969 for the workers for the Cyprus Anvil Mine, at the time destined to be the largest open pit lead zinc mine in the world. The new town was almost finished when a wildfire came through in June 1969 and burned it all down. The construction workers knew there was little they could save so went into the trailer that was the Liquor Store and grabbed all the liquor they could and raced to the river and buried it. Or so the legend has it. The town was rebuilt and the mill and pit workers moved in but the employee turnover was alleged to be about 400% a year.

Every spring, new teens in town were seen to be casually walking through town to the river carrying shovels. Anyone who had lived there at least for a year just smiled. The new kids were hoping for the buried treasure but anyone who had been in town before freeze up in autumn knew the river changed course considerably every spring so who knew where the mythical liquor was?

“Disappear” is not the same as “change course” Polis, a UVIC environmental department, has a website with a lot of great new information and new studies and below is the link to their water information. It was through this site that we had the opportunity to hear a PhD graduate student talk about how his research strongly indicated that the streams on the west coast of Vancouver Island were drying already and may not exist in a few decades. https://poliswaterproject.org/#:~:text=The%20POLIS%20Water%20Sustainability%20Project,Victoria's%20Centre%20for%20Global%20Studies.

Beavers, of course Where would the 606 WG newsletter be without another beavers story? Beavers can contribute to water storage, wetlands, wildfire suppression and fire breaks and “rewilding” areas devastated by human activities.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/they-released-beavers-into-a-wasteland-then-this-happened/vi-AA1R6mMt

Some statistics Hmmm—Calgarians who do not conserve water even when officially being asked to do so in an emergency or beavers who slow and conserve water... which would you prefer for neighbours? CRD water users also need to heed requests for conservation. Money can keep the infrastructure in good shape, but it can’t buy back the old rainfall patterns.

Last month, we reported that November was exceptionally dry. The predicted pattern is more rain in shorter, heavier downpours. Because the Sooke Lake Reservoir has limited storage, the more the rains are concentrated, the more water will go over the dam without a predictable rainfall to replace it.

Some statistics will demonstrate this. The CRD Water Watch includes comparison of the current rainy season (September to end of month) with average rainfall from the last 110 years. At the end of November, the rainfall measured was 84% of the 110 year average. That is down16%. By the end of December, the rainfall measured was 115% of the 110 year average. It looks like 31% of the rain came down in one month. It felt like that, too.

Note that as of January 11, the reservoir was at 95.9%, so no water has gone over the dam yet. In 2025, the reservoir filled to 100% between February 23 (97.8%) and March 2 (100%) Water would be going over the dam until the week ending April 20, when the record shows 99.6% full.

Another statistic is the daily demand for each month, averaged over the past five years. Average daily usage for 2025 was typically greater than the five-year average daily usage. At the end of the summer dry season, the Sooke Lake Reservoir was below the previous lowest level measured in five years. We can anticipate another very dry season in 2026 and another historic low level in the reservoir. Will CRD water customers actually reduce their average daily demand over the summer?

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