{"id":58875,"date":"2021-08-03T10:04:21","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58875"},"modified":"2021-08-03T10:04:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:04:21","slug":"bcs-faltering-effort-to-manage-water-use-brings-a-looming-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58875","title":{"rendered":"BC\u2019s Faltering Effort to Manage Water Use Brings a Looming Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BC\u2019s Faltering Effort to Manage Water Use Brings a Looming Crisis<\/a><\/h3>\n

Thousands of groundwater users could be cut off in March as they fail to apply for water licences. Critics blame government inaction.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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\"SprinklerAgricultureIndustrialWaterIrrigation.jpeg\"
Farms across BC rely on well water for irrigation. If they don\u2019t register by March 1, the supply could be cut off.\u00a0Photo by\u00a0Brad Smith<\/a>, Creative Commons license\u00a0CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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The way it looks to David Slade, a water-well driller with 50 years of experience, some 15,000 British Columbia groundwater users are going to become criminals overnight next March.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat certainly seems to be the trajectory we\u2019re on now,\u201d said Slade, who is based on Vancouver Island and is a past president of the\u00a0B.C. Groundwater Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Existing users of groundwater \u2014 generally from wells or dugouts \u2014 for agriculture, industry or business have until March 1 to get licences. So far, fewer than one-quarter of the affected water users have applied. People using well water for household use are exempt from the requirement but are encouraged to\u00a0register their wells<\/a>\u00a0to help government manage the resource.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s willful ignorance, or just people are ignoring it in hopes it will go away,\u201d Slade said.<\/p>\n

Former civil servants and others with knowledge of the situation are warning that few people are aware there is a crunch coming that could have severe consequences for water users, food security and the wider economy.<\/p>\n

Even people like Slade who believe the change is badly needed say the government has bungled its implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of frustration all around, and it\u2019s because the government, in my mind, hasn\u2019t taken this file seriously,\u201d said Slade. \u201cIt\u2019s a big story but it hasn\u2019t gotten much traction. It\u2019s going to be a big story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BC\u2019s Faltering Effort to Manage Water Use Brings a Looming Crisis Thousands of groundwater users could be cut off in March as they fail to apply for water licences. Critics blame government inaction. Farms across BC rely on well water for irrigation. If they don\u2019t register by March 1, the supply could be cut off.\u00a0Photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11645,94,103,379,23884,866,31576],"class_list":["post-58875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-macleod","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-government","tag-thetyee-ca","tag-water","tag-water-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58876,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58875\/revisions\/58876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}