Re: “Shawnigan decision mocks appeal process,” letter, March 25
The property owners in the Shawnigan Lake area are rightly worried about the quality of their lake water.
The asphalt road that partly surrounds the lake is a source of chemicals that are washed by rainwater into the lake. The vehicles on the road exhaust gases and leak small quantities of oil, also sources of pollution. Some drivers dump garbage at the roadside, such as containers of used engine oil or lubricants.
In the summer, people use powerboats on the lake and their engines leave a film of pollutants on the water surface. In addition, the runoff from asphalt-covered roofs of the dwellings around the lake also includes a small amount of chemicals that ultimately find their way into the lake.
Thus, the Ministry of Environment does not consider Shawnigan Lake to be a suitable source for a public drinking-water system. This fact might explain the decision to allow the dumping of debris related to road construction in the watershed.
If property owners decide in the future to install a safe drinking-water system, they have to find a more suitable source of water than the lake.
Until now, property owners were ignorant of the ongoing pollution and did not care about the future quality of the lake water.
However, the threat of a dump of contaminated dirt in the watershed has alerted them. They still consider the lake water to be pristine and are angry with the ministry. They are wasting money on an appeal, instead of hiring a consultant to help them find and designate a future reservoir that is protected from public abuse.
Nick Meijer-Drees
Ladysmith
