Myths and Facts
MYTH: The GVRD is opposed to roadbuilding and pipeline construction in the watersheds on the grounds that it will cause increased siltation of the water supply.
FACT: The GVRD has an annual program of logging road construction, much of it on steep terrain, that is resulting in increased levels of soil erosion in the watersheds.
MYTH: There are no potential health problems associated with drinking Greater Vancouver's tap water when its murky.
FACT: "The water is safe to drink - but the potential (for a problem) is there."
- Dr. Bill Meekison, Boundary Health Unit.
"Silt-laden, cloudy water can carry harmful bacteria that can't be controlled with chlorine."
-Dr. John Blatherwick, Vancouver's chief medical officer.
MYTH: A forest management program in the watersheds culls diseased and decadent tree stands to maintain a healthy forest for the production of high quality water.
FACT: There have been no major insect attacks in the watersheds for many years. The current logging program involves clearcutting about 130 hectares of healthy old-growth rainforest per year. Logging roads and clearcutting are accelerating the erosion of water quality-reducing silt and clay.
MYTH: Logging reduces forest fire threats.
FACT: The chief fire hazard in the watersheds is the hundreds of hectares of unburned logging slash on the approximately 50 percent of logged areas that haven't been slashburned in the last 10 years.
MYTH: Better quality water will be provided by substituting a patch work of even aged homogeneous plantations and natural regeneration for the relatively uneven aged, structurally diverse, old-growth forest.
FACT: "We produce a very high quality of water from an old-growth ecosystem." - Dr. Jerry Franklin, western North America's foremost expert on old-growth forests.
Is the GVRD breaking the law by permitting watershed logging?
The Greater Vancouver Water District Act of 1924 is a piece of legislation that overrides all others regarding the management of the three valleys which are the source of our drinking water. This Act established that all activities in these watersheds must be shown to maintain or improve drinking water quality.
Section 87 of this Act makes it an offence in the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersheds to "throw or deposit any injurious or offensive matter into the water supply", and Section88 makes it an offence to "convey or cast, cause or throw, or put filth, dirt or other deleterious thing in any river from which the Greater Vancouver water supply is obtained."
In 1972, when the watersheds were relatively lightly logged, the studies of Dr. O'Loughlin found that at that time logging and road construction were causing at least a 74 percent increase in soil erosion within logged areas. In light of this study, there appears to be a very good case for saying that the GVRD is breaking the law. How can this be? Does the extra soil erosion necessarily get into our drinking water? The answer is emphatically YES because both logging-caused landslides and peak stream flow rates occur simultaneously. Swollen creeks inevitably wash much of the extra mud from logging roads and clearcuts into our reservoirs. Why therefore is the GVRD not being prosecuted? Greater Vancouverites should demand a halt to logging in their watersheds until the GVRD can demonstrate that its logging activities are, as it claims, maintaining or improving water quality.
From: "An investigation of the Stability of the Steppland Forest Soils in the Coast Mountains, Southwest B.C." by Collin O'Loughlin, UBC 1972
Why did the provincial Ministry of Environment refuse, in September 1990, to act on the irrefutable evidence of GVRD-caused soil erosion supplied by WCWC's lawyers through the Regional Crown Council? Graphic photographs of a logging road under construction that had collapsed directly into Harmony Creek in the Coquitlam watershed failed to elicit a charge under The Greater Vancouver Water District Act.
The ombudsman, approached by the WCWC which was becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of action on this issue, advised the WCWC that he has no jurisdiction over the GVRD. The B.C. Forest Service, which issues GVRD logging permits, says it has nothing to do with water quality. Who then is the watchdog for our water supply areas?
It is surely time for the Ministry of Environment to stop abdicating its responsibility and to act to defend the drinking water quality of Greater Vancouverites, and indeed of all citizens of B.C. who are beset with problems caused by logging in their watersheds.
(chart: Impact of Logging and Road Building on Soil Erosion in the Capilano and Seymour Watersheds)
