I had a question from a local resident regarding the Shuswap Watershed Council. I thought it was a good question so I’ve provided that question and my response here.

Hello Jay. We are talking about the the Shuswap Watershed Council. It being a nonregulatory body I was asked “Of what value is it?”
Could that funding be better spent on the prevention of invasive species? Like more inspection stations? I recall when there was discussion about this subject at one of the town hall meetings, concerns were expressed that if we policed this that tourism would be adversely affected. We are now thinking that it would be far better for us to not have the Zebra mussels than the polluting boaters.
Your advice and wisdom will be appreciated. Should we vote to make the Shuswap Watershed Council a permanent entity or wisely use that money in other ways?

Response – In my opinion…
The SWC is non-regulatory, that is true. Unfortunately, we don’t see the bodies that are regulatory stepping up to the level that they should be, or that we would like them to be. Without a body like the Shuswap watershed Council to hold them to task, they really have no extra incentive to do the things needed to protect our lakes and rivers, our communities, our businesses, tourism, etc.

Inspection stations are a function of the provincial government. CSRD does not have the ability to set those up, staff them, or make any non-compliant boaters take any specific steps. Again, this comes down to groups like the SWC, the Okanagan Basin Water Board, other water boards in the Kooteney‘s, and up north, to speak to the province with one voice, and encourage or harass them to do what we know is right.

The SWC has been instrumental in identifying the areas of greatest pollution input into the lake. We all knew that agriculture was not doing things that they should to protect the water courses. The SWC has coordinated water testing, and studies to identify and prove that that is the case. The Department of Agriculture has some steps that they are taking to reduce those nutrient flows, but implementation is slow, and haphazard. The SWC has a role to work with the department of agriculture to make sure that more farms in our area become compliant and do a better job of reducing those nutrient flows.

Yes, the SWC is non-regulatory, but without our voice contributing information and recommendations to these bodies that do have regulatory authority, we will be lost amid those groups that continue to have that voice.

The ask is for less than $10 per year, which is a very small price to pay to stay in that conversation, and make sure that those who have jurisdiction continue to be aware of the Shuswap and look at it as an important area for their efforts.