CUMBERLAND, B.C. – Cumberland’s council has approved the prohibition of water bottling operations in the village.
Council welcomed a presentation from Bruce Gibbons, founder of the Merville Water Guardians, back in September. He asked council to change its zoning bylaws to ban the bottling and selling of local groundwater.
Following Gibbons’ presentation, staff prepared a report, which was presented to council on Monday afternoon.
“It was a very interesting meeting in that staff had put forward a very comprehensive plan of what we could do and what we couldn’t do. What happened was that we are including that no one can bottle water within the village,” said Cumberland mayor, Leslie Baird.
“I think this is an excellent thing for the community. Water is very precious and we need to make sure it’s dealt with properly, and that everybody has the opportunity to have good, clean water.”
Gibbons said that he will present to Courtenay council on December 3rd and has made a request to present to Comox council on December 5th.
“We are making progress on preventing water bottling in the region. And we are still moving forward with pressuring the provincial government to stop approving groundwater licenses. Signatures are started to trickle in on the online petition and we hope that trickle turns into a flood soon,” he stated in an email correspondence with MyComoxValleyNow.com.
The Merville Water Guardians’ online petition can be accessed via this link.
