The proponents of an all-season resort on Brohm Ridge think they have the water thing nailed down, but couldn't answer questions last week concerning how much power it'll take to pipe all that water uphill.
At a public information meeting on Wednesday (May 15) at the CN Roundhouse and Conference Centre, Katherine Tixier, a hydrogeologist with Piteau Associates, provided a detailed report on water testing conducted in February in the Paradise Valley.
The conclusion, which was first reported in The Chief on April 25, is that the aquifer can sustainably provide the 70 litres per second of water needed to supply the 22,000-bed-unit Garibaldi at Squamish (GAS) resort, at full build-out, without significant impacts on either the environment or other area wells, Tixier told the approximately 120 people in attendance, including Squamish Mayor Rob Kirkham and Coun. Ted Prior.
The water thing, as GAS chairman Wolfgang Richter termed it, was the big sticking point back in 2010 when the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) ordered the environmental certification process for the proposal put on hold pending receipt of more information. At the time, GAS proponents were given until June 2013 to supply the data needed to re-start the process.
Tixier said the 96-hour flow test conducted from Feb. 21 to 25 included the monitoring of five other nearby wells to see how underground water levels responded to the 70 L/sec. drawdown. While the worst-case drawdown was about 80 centimetres, the fact that all the wells rebounded shortly after the testing stopped indicates that such a flow can be maintained without significant impacts, she said.
After one man suggested that drawing that much water on a regular basis would likely result in higher turbidity (sedimentation) of water in the area, Tixier said Paradise Valley residents have never seen high turbidity levels in their wells. The groundwater, she said, is clear and meets all Canadian water-quality guidelines.
Seventy litres per second represents approximately nine per cent of the flow of the Paradise Valley aquifer in the summer and six per cent in the winter, Tixier said.
Basically we're sipping on the water that's already flowing by and perturbing the water flow only slightly, she said.
Local environmentalist John Buchanan told Tixier that two years ago, nearby Swift Creek went dry, forcing the local streamkeepers group to rescue juvenile fish that were stranded in the pools that remained. GAS proponents really need to test water levels for five to 10 years enough to take in a full drought-flood cycle before concluding that there's adequate water, he said.
When you're building something this huge, you want to get it right so you want to sit on this until that part of the cycle occurs, Buchanan said.
Tixier, though, showed attendees graphs comparing the drawdown with the surface levels of nearby Swift Creek and the Cheakamus River during the flow test. They appeared to show ground and surface water in the area is not hydraulically coupled i.e. that there's little, if any, correlation between groundwater levels and the water level in nearby streams.
Tixier said monitoring of water levels in Paradise Valley wells is currently set to continue through this October and may be extended beyond that if those doing the work feel it's necessary.
We don't have all the answers right now, but we wanted to tell you what we do know at this point, she said.
After Tixier's presentation, a man in the audience said one of the key questions still to be answered is the amount of power that will be needed to pipe the water several thousand feet uphill to the resort. It's going to be horrific, he said.
That's an important part of the equation; it's just not within my scope of work, Tixier said.
George McKay, a GAS environmental certification consultant, said GAS's civil engineering consultant wasn't available to attend last week's meeting, but that proponents would try to find an answer before the next public open house.
Richter said GAS officials plan to submit supplemental data to the EAO soon and hope to secure environmental certification and a master development agreement from The Province sometime in 2014. During that time, proponents also aim to seek input from the District of Squamish which, if provincial approvals materialize, is likely to be asked to seek a boundary extension to take in the development before considering zoning. As well, input from the community at large is an important element, Richter said.
You, the community, has the hammer, he told the gathering. We don't get to build one thing without an elected local body giving us the zoning.
