Say “Shuswap” and most people think of the huge lake with more than 1,000 kilometres of shoreline.
But there is a lot more water in the Shuswap watershed, a system that forms the major southeast contributor to the Fraser River watershed and provides key habitat for a significant percentage of provincial fish stocks. And as a Shuswap watershed website notes, the system is home to diverse wildlife and plant species, and provides water for drinking, development and agriculture.
That the watershed is rehabilitated where needed and protected for future generations is the aim of the non-profit Shuswap Water Action Team Society (SWAT), who held their AGM Oct. 10.
President Ray Nadeau says some of the group’s accomplishments include helping to get the ban on private sewage discharges into Shuswap Lake, helping to establish Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process (SLIPP) and its first three years of funding, pushing for a greywater ban in 2007, volunteer co-ordination with Ministry of the Environment and SLIPP on water quality testing, and raising public and political awareness of the issues.
SWAT volunteers assisted MOE with algae testing by checking measuring devices on a regular basis over the summer to make sure they were protected.
SWAT directors are participating on the public advisory committee for the development of the Regional District of North Okanagan’s Shuswap River Watershed Sustainability Plan, which includes one-half of Mara Lake.
“It’s their version of SLIPP,” says Nadeau, noting he is a member of several working committees to co-ordinate their work with SWAT and SLIPP. “My particular interest is in making sure it’s well co-ordinated. We really wanted them to be part of SLIPP, but they had already begun their own process. It’s actually working very well.”
SWAT was on the public advisory committee for Area C South Shuswap’s official community plan, that performs many functions, such as restricting the number of boat moorages and limiting high-density waterfront development.
Despite a raucous Aug. 28 public meeting that led to the deferral of third reading at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District September board meeting, Nadeau believes the official community plan should be given final approval in October.
“I thought it was unnecessary to defer it; it was a community process that involved hundreds of people over a long period of time,” he says, noting agreement on the OCP was attained after a broad spectrum of people, including the business community, developers and others from across South Shuswap participated in the process. “A lot of people think it was Ted’s (Bacigalupo) process. It wasn’t. Ted happened to be the director and he initiated the process.”
While many people, himself included, did not agree with everything included in the OCP, Nadeau says everyone in Area C had an opportunity to provide their input.
“I didn’t agree with everything that was in there, but I was part of the process and we had to come to a general agreement of what would work,” he says. “And everyone had the opportunity for input at six public meetings.”
On the commercial development front, SWAT worked on a number of Blind Bay waterfront development issues.
These included developments where property owners have extended private docks beyond what is permitted by government under legal tenure.
“The permits dictate dock size and number of boats requirements and some have gone beyond that and are being investigated by government,” Nadeau says. “It was brought to our attention and we turned it over to the government.”
SWAT was also involved in evaluating flooding impacts on septic systems this spring and provincial sewage regulation issues.
“What we’ve been finding is actually the impact of flooding goes much higher than the water levels,” he says. “It backs up in the underground water table up the hillsides and gets into septic systems.”
And, speaking of septic systems, Nadeau says as far as SWAT is concerned, septic regulations are totally inadequate.
“There are still some big problems,” he says. “Since 2005, there have been inadequate regulations to govern the systems – everything from conflicts of interest to poorly written legislation.”
With regard to the recent closure of two South Shuswap beaches because of high levels of E. Coli, Nadeau notes there are other factors affecting water quality.
Looking at the year ahead, Nadeau says SWAT is looking at creating an educational video in partnership with SLIPP
“One of our most important objectives is to see if we can get SLIPP to become a fully funded water board like they have in the Okanagan,” says Nadeau.