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Protecting Drinking Water Quality and Seaplane Activity

- McNeill and Harris Lakes

Public Open House July 21, 2015

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Presentation Overview

• Why we are here• Current regulatory framework• Non-regulatory options• Regulatory options• Next Steps• Questions

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Why we are here

• Communicate concerns over Seaplane activity on drinking water lakes– Cases of Seaplanes landing on Garden Bay Lake in recent

years.

• Communicate the risk to drinking water quality from hydrocarbons related to Seaplane activity.

• Identify any community needs to access McNeill and Harris Lakes by Seaplane.

• Determine a preferred option to protect drinking water quality from Seaplane activity.

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Current Regulations

• The Federal government has legislative authority and jurisdiction over navigation on all Canadian waters.

• Every Canadian has a common law right to access water navigation.

• The Canada Shipping Act, 2001, through the Vessel Operation Restriction Regulations (VORR) prohibits or imposes restrictions on the operation of vessels on certain lakes and waterways within Canada.

• A seaplane is considered a vessel once it touches the water’s surface.

• If a lake or waterway is listed in the VORR restricting vessel operation, then that restriction will be listed in the Canada Water Aerodrome Supplement (CWAS), preventing seaplane use.

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Current Status

• Garden Bay, Hotel, Klein, Mixal, Trout, and Waugh Lakes are restricted to electric motor vessels only in the VORR.

• Chapman and Edward Lakes are within the Tetrahedron Provincial Park, which prohibits general aircraft landings.

• There are currently no vessel restrictions in place for McNeill or Harris Lakes.

• Harbour Air has noted that they have no concern with restricting McNeill and Harris Lakes from Seaplane access.

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Non-Regulatory Solutions

• Non-regulatory options could be:– Install signage at lake access points informing visitors that the

lakes are drinking water sources and to treat them with respect.– Maintain regular communication with local seaplane operators

and obtain voluntary compliance agreement to not use the lakes.– Posting notices throughout the community and on the SCRD

web site.– Respond to inappropriate lake use incidents in a reactive

manner.

• Given the remote location of both McNeill and Harris Lakes, non-regulatory solutions would be very difficult to administer and provide no avenue for enforcement.

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Regulatory Solutions

• Adding these lakes to the VORR will restrict pilots from legally landing their aircraft on the drinking water lakes.

• Adding both McNeill and Harris Lakes to the VORR will mean that both lakes will be listed in the Canada Water Aerodrome Supplement (CWAS).

• CWAS has options for vessel restrictions:1. Prohibition of all vessels

2. Limitation of propulsion power or type of propulsion

3. Imposition of speed limits; or

4. Restriction of towing activities such as waterskiing or regattas

• The RCMP Sechelt Detachment has committed to enforce the VORR.

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Costs

• Costs for both the non-regulatory and regulatory options are quite minimal.

• The cost to add the two lakes to the VORR is approximately $5,500.

• The SCRD will be responsible for both regulatory and non-regulatory signage.

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Next Steps

• Obtain public feedback on whether to pursue Non-regulatory or Regulatory solution.

• Present feedback to the SCRD Board.• Pursue preferred option to implementation

– VORR process involves an application through Transport Canada that takes up to twelve months to process.

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Questions / Comments