“We all have to get off the bank and into the water” – Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker.
The Pitt Meadows Environmental Network, incorporated last week, will “monitor and advocate for” the local environment, independent of council.
I asked Mayor John Becker why he helped create this body, and to comment on environmental issues in Pitt Meadows:
JB: The initiative was driven from the need to have a broad-based, independent organization in and for the city.
JE: In 2015, you told The News you were frustrated trying to get senior government to enforce its own regulations and wanted “more environmental capacity” at city hall. Say more?
JB: As we saw a weakening of the environmental capabilities of the Ministry of Environment, Fisheries and Oceans, and the Agricultural Land Commission, I thought an independent group could shine light on these deficiencies and engage the community.
JE: Geoff Clayton of ARMS says salmon – low water levels – have “struggled up the North Alouette River to spawn.” He told me, “The issue is gross abstraction of water from hundreds of licences issued without anyone knowing the cumulative affect on aquatic life.”
Clayton says, “the MOE admitted a lack of staffing to monitor licence compliance. The DFO told ARMS it doesn’t have the staff to ensure adequate flows are left for fish in the face of massive water withdrawals.”
Clayton calls for, “No new licences until a Farm Water Use and Allocation Plan is implemented with real time monitoring of water allocations compared to a graph of fish friendly water flow, users to give volumes and times of extracting, data recorded in a central government location.”
The city, he adds, “should have these numbers in a data bank and make them available in monthly reports.”
Your thoughts?
JB: I – personally (not speaking for council) – don’t believe the city has responsibility to keep provincial data, but has responsibility to make sure MOE is doing its job (i.e. considering the cumulative effects of drawdowns under the licencing program, maintaining statistics in real time useful to local governments and residents). Our Integrated Water Management Master Plan (not online yet), will grow beyond what was originally envisioned – an irrigation utility. Other values need to be embedded in it.
JE: How would the city function differently?
JB: Not having legal jurisdiction is no longer an acceptable excuse for not acting. We have made sure that environmental issues are in the hands of the proper provincial authorities. I would demand data re-withdrawals be accessible. Our residents should be able to go on our website and link to provincial data to see where drawdown pipes are, and the terms and conditions where water can be drawn.
JE: And regarding DFO’s responsibilities?
JB: We need to find out if DFO would ensure that adequate water supplies are maintained throughout the year, whatever the needs are.
JE: And if not?
JB: If our environmental steward thinks water levels aren’t what they need to be, we will demand action from the DFO because that’s unacceptable. We need to take care of business.
JE: On April 9, health officials warned against eating B.C. oysters after 40 cases of norovirus linked to sewage. Viruses and biotoxins persist in water year-round. March 27, reports of cholera in French Creek linked to eating herring eggs. Possible cause – sewage. Last year, Julie Porter’s tests of Katzie Slough revealed coliform counts higher than recommended for agriculture from a Maple Ridge sewage pipe during heavy rains. It won’t be decommissioned until 2022.
City engineer Forest Smith says Pitt Meadows has purchased water monitoring equipment, and will post data regularly.
Your comments?
JB: We should be talking to Maple Ridge on managing storm events and its sewage system. Is there something it’s doing to cap it? As part of the IWMMP, do we have to have boil-water alerts? The MOE should be testing the slough, and if there’s something happening, it should be taking action. If Metro is testing, results should be available and there should be information about the results. In the meantime, there’s nothing to prevent staff from informing themselves. It could be an initiative that comes to council.
JE: Should there be another graph that lets Katzie Slough water users assess coliform levels before they draw from it, canoe, or let the dog swim in it?
JB: MOE should be doing it. I find it untenable that, as a mayor, I have to ask MOE to do its job, or ask MLAs Lisa Beare and Bob D’Eith to please ask MOE to come out here.
JE: In 2013, Scott Environmental Resources concluded Katzie Slough could rear chinook fry over the winter, except for low oxygen levels, low flow. A Watershed Watch letter asks residents to request the IWMMP embraces the goals of fish friendly pump stations and flood gates to replace old ones like Kennedy.
JB: A fish friendly upgrade for Kennedy pump seems a natural fit. I’m guessing the cost of replacing the conventional pump might be 15 per cent more. These folks, at Watershed Water, want us to acknowledge the value added – contribution to fish and habitat. What that means to the First Nations community might give us access to federal grant money within the Green Infrastructure Fund. I’m talking to MP Dan Ruimy.
JE: Do you have a boyhood story that reflects your connection to the outdoors?
JB: My mom tells me the only time she saw me quiet and still was sitting on the bank of a pickerel lake in Winnipeg, watching my bobber for hours. I look to things I’ve championed, including the Pitt Polder Society I created in the 1990s, and our own environmental steward position more recently. Many people question my motivation as a late-comer to these issues. It makes me smile.
Next month: Jack Emberly will discuss the same issues with Pitt Meadows Coun. Bill Dingwall, who has declared his candidacy for mayor in the fall.