By Tom Mark

Spall Mayor Still Waiting For Government On Hullcar

Jul 16, 2018 | 6:26 AM

Spallumcheen Mayor Janice Brown wants to know where the provincial government is on the Hullcar Aquifer.

Last November, an independent review made a number of recommendations of improving soil nitrate balance and restoring the aquifer to acceptable levels.

Since 2014, the area has been under a water-quality advisory because of elevated nitrate levels believed to be caused by heavy manure spraying on a farm above the aquifer.

But the mayor says as far she knows all that’s been done is the release of some grant money for private well owners to improve their water systems.

“And they haven’t done anything about the nitrate level in the water of the Steele Springs residents which has gone up to like 14, 14 and 15.”

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Brown says Fraser Basin Water has approved the release of 50 thousand dollars for private well. owners.

But, there is 300 thousand dollars in grant money designated for the Steele Springs Water District two years ago that is still tied up.

Brown hopes to have another meeting at the UBCM convention with the Environment Minister in September to talk about the Hullcar Aquifer.

She says George Heyman promised action last fall and a review released in November made several recommendations.

But communication appears to have come to a complete halt.

“And so here we go in to our next municipal election and probably our provincial election and nothing has been done.”

Brown recalls there was a lot of talk since the former Liberal government announced at a meeting more than 2 years ago 950 thousand dollars for improvements.

“There was a lot of opposition parties there and they were going to do this and there was going to be action and they were screaming in then hall – you need action – when we were all up there saying what we’d done so far, and they have done nothing. nothing at all.”

Brown says the government is trying to shut down the Trans Mountain pipeline and doesn’t care about the economic impact but is worried about the economic impact of dealing with one farm when 142 people can’t drink their water.

She says it’s pretty frustrating because feels in the big picture it could have been an easy win at putting money in to get clean water.

Spallumcheen is looking for solutions on its own and is investigating to see if some of the farm animal waste can be dealt with through the township’s waste water system.

But Brown says it’s not up to Spallumcheen to be the government’s solution.

by Tom Mark