COURTENAY, B.C- Kris La Rose wants to make sure residents of the Valley the limits of their water system.
La Rose, who serves as the senior manager of Water and Wastewater with the Comox Valley Regional District, recently spoke with 98.9 The Goat about the system of restrictions currently in place to manage the local water supply.
“We’re very lucky to have Comox Lake as the source of our drinking water, but the lake doesn’t offer us the unlimited supply of fresh water that it appears to,” said La Rose.
According to La Rose, the average depth of the lake is around 60 metres. However, only the top five metres of the water is accessible for drinking water, due to the way the Puntledge River exits the lake.
With BC Hydro set to maintain certain flows for fish in the river, La Rose says that the CVRD puts restrictions in place to “share our pain” with the fish, in the face of tripled water consumption in the summer.
He also said that there had been significant changes in weather patterns noticed, with more changes predicted for the local watershed.
“If drought conditions become more common in the summer, it’s entirely possible we may change the way we implement these (restrictions), but there are no further changes foreseen at the moment,” said La Rose.
La Rose said that Stage 1 restrictions are coming into effect as of May 1.
“Beyond that, we’ll be moving to higher level restrictions only if the conditions warrant it,” said La Rose.
Further information on those restrictions can be found on the CVRD website.
