Virtual Forum on Water Quality and Quantity

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents: The Cortes Housing Society’s Virtual Forum will be returning to the airwaves at 10 AM on Saturday, April 20, with a program on water Quality and Quantity. Host Sadhu Johnstone will be joined by three expert panelists: Darren Bond from Hornby Water Stewardship, Nick Sargent from the Quadra Island Climate Action Network and David Bethune of Groundwater Solutions. There will also be breakout sessions to discuss how these issues apply to Cortes Island.

 “In December 2023, we hosted a housing forum to talk about housing challenges in the community and concerns that people had. In environmental systems in particular, water systems really came up loud and clear as something that we needed to really be thinking about as a community. It was a very, very important discussion for me, as the new executive director of the housing society. (I now) recognize that we are really quite behind some of our neighboring islands in our work as a community, looking at our water supplies,” explained Sadhu Johnstone. 

“We haven't really mapped our aquifers on the island and don't really have a sense of the aquifer health.  With climate change,  we're likely to face more droughts and more demand for water from aquifers as a community.  If we're going to add additional housing to support people that are here and needing housing, that could cause a strain on systems. So this is critically important for the folks living on Cortes and for future people that are looking to live on Cortes.”

“I've spoken to folks on Quadra, Hornby, Pender and other islands. They've done a lot of this work already.  This forum is a chance to have them in the room with us, on Zoom, and to learn what they've done, and what they would recommend we do or don't do. We're also going to have an expert from Groundwater Solutions, which has supported a number of rural communities and island communities in their work to map their aquifers and assess the aquifer health." 

"There are things that we can do to recharge our aquifers.  If there are aquifers that are  overused or aren't being recharged, there are ways that you can do that.  It's just very interesting to understand what those are and how we can utilize those approaches."

“I'm very interested to make the connection to ways that we can develop using less water. How do we  do more with composting toilets and low water solutions? Capturing rainwater and utilizing that instead of needing to pull all of the water that we need from out of the ground.” 

“We're hearing more and more that people with surface wells are seeing lower water levels in the summers. There's obviously a tie in  with climate change.” 

“This form is the first step for us, as the housing society, to really be thinking about this island wide and to be learning from other places and charting a course forward.” 

“We have applied for a grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC to help to commission a study to assess the aquifer health, map the aquifers and assess the aquifer health, and to be thinking about things that we could be doing in the future. This forum is a way to learn from what other places have done that are ahead of us, but also to help shape our work.”

Podcast View from Hornby Island office window by Glissmedia via Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0 Deed)