Dozens of New Water
Bottling Operations Slated for B.C. Inlets
by WCEL
At least 40 streams in four adjoining B.C. inlets north
of Vancouver
have been targeted for new water bottling operations, five groups revealed
today.
The bulk of
the dozens of water bottling license applications--in Bute, Knight, Jervis and
Toba Inlets--were filed in 2010 and are now in the hands of the new B.C.
Ministry of Resource Operations.
Friends of
Bute Inlet, Sierra Club Quadra Island, Sierra Club Malaspina, the Sunshine Coast
Conservation Association and the Campbell
River chapter of the Council of Canadians are all
calling on B.C. Environment Minister Murray Coell to authorize a formal
environmental assessment covering all the applications.
“Right
now, the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations is only examining each project
individually, and it does not have a mandate to investigate the overall impact
of taking water from at least 40 streams in the same area,” said Lannie
Keller, spokesperson for Friends of Bute Inlet. “This is an industrial
operation by anyone’s definition.”
Five
British Columbian groups call for formal environmental assessment
The water
license applications are to remove up to 112.5 cubic metres (almost 25,000
gallons) of water each day from each stream. Water will be collective from a
skiff through a pump or hose and funnel, and the skiff will offload onto a
barge and then transport the water by truck to a bottling establishment.
“This
is a completely new dimension in water exploitation, unlike anything the public
has
seen
before,” says Daniel Bouman of the Sunshine Coast Conservation
Association. “The
sheer number
of applications, the cumulative potential environmental impacts of the scheme,
and
certainly the growing level of public concern all justify a full environmental
assessment.
North Island
MLA Claire Trevena has already asked Coell to authorize an environmental
assessment of the cumulative impacts of the proposed water operations. Andrew
Gage, acting Executive Director of West Coast Environmental Law, has asked
Coell to extend the public comment period. In a letter to Coell, Gage said the
wrong questions were being asked by the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations
and that the proponent should be required to provide detailed information about
how the project will operate as a whole.
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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2010
