To the editor:
The Cariboo Regional District (CRD) is to be congratulated on devising a measure to reverse the continual lowering of the 108 Mile Lake.
At the well-attended Oct. 24 public meeting, Mitch Minchau, the CRD's manager of environmental affairs, laid out a proposal to drill into the north aquifer to install a well from which water could be pumped into the lake.
In 2008, we, the undersigned, proposed a similar measure, which was to pump the 108 Water Works idle non-summer capacity into the lake, which is 300 thousand gallons per day.
The lake level is currently just less than nine feet below spillway. The lake reached overflow in 2000. Since then, the annual loss has been 10 inches, of which we believe seven inches leaks into the underlying aquifer and three inches is used for golf course irrigation.
Water no longer flows from Tubbs Lake headwater as witnessed by the slides shown at the meeting.
The CRD solution will be more costly to the 108 Water Works' customers than ours, but this will be justified by the result.
The audience was also told the proposal to bring water from the standby 106 and Easzee wells will need an Environmental Impact Assessment prior to discharging into Sepa Lake.
(Footnote: A report from the facilitator of the meeting is available by electronic mail from the CRD.)
Barrie Bolton, B.Sc.
Neil Duncan, B.Sc.
108 Mile Ranch
