The Capital Regional District will spend $100,000 this year as part of a three-phase, $364,000 plan to install video surveillance equipment at key locations around the Sooke Reservoir and watershed — Greater Victoria’s primary source of drinking water.
The decision by the regional water supply commission to boost security comes after a number of incidents of trespassing, theft and vandalism over the past year.
Some commission members wondered whether the large expenditure wasn’t overkill.
While supportive of the initiative, commissioner Vic Derman, a Saanich councillor, said cost estimates for the electronics seemed high. He hoped better prices would be found through a request for proposals.
Derman also said the use of surveillance drones, which could cover an expansive area like the watershed, should be considered.
“They now are incredibly capable and, in some cases, incredibly cheap,” Derman said.
“There is a privacy issue, but not in something like the watershed where people are not supposed to be anyway. They don’t have an expectation of privacy.”
Most trespassing over the years has been for recreational purposes, but also occasionally for illegal activities such as marijuana-growing operations and the harvest of salal and other forest products, CRD staff say.
In the past year, there have been some more disturbing incidents.
A year ago, there was a break-in at the field operations centre. A fence was cut and items stolen, including a generator, cut-off saw, power saw, water pump and emergency response binder.
In October 2012, two fences were cut to gain access to the Head Tank and Sooke Dam and attempts were made to get into Sooke Dam outbuildings.
In January, a gate was cut open, a Sooke Dam plaque was vandalized and a sign was thrown into Sooke Lake Reservoir near the Intake Tower. Portable washrooms were also pushed over.
Acting commissioner Rick Kasper, a Sooke councillor, wondered whether it might be more prudent to hire outside security rather than investing in capital costs.
“To light our hair on fire for three incidents really doesn’t make any sense,” Kasper said. “That facility out there is like an armed camp compared to what it was two decades ago. Nobody lit their hair on fire then.”
Kasper noted that it wasn’t that long ago a public road ran immediately adjacent to the reservoir.
He worried the installations might lead to the hiring of more staff for monitoring.
Water services general manager Ted Robbins said monitoring would be done from the Japan Gulch treatment plant, which is staffed 24 hours a day. Monitoring will be triggered primarily by camera alarms that sound when motion has been detected in the surveillance area.
While not a primary purpose, the video surveillance would also allow remote environmental monitoring of weather and reservoir conditions. The cameras could provide the weekly Sooke Lake Reservoir photo posted to the CRD public website. Cameras installed at other gates could be used to check weather and road conditions.
