A small creek trickles down a gravel pathway, its clear water bubbling and dribbling between the pebbles before surrendering to ditches on either side of the dirt road.
To most people, the stream looks like many they might see around Squamish after a heavy day of rain, but this one is different. Even in the heat of summer, it continues to run. And Brian Barnett knows why.
At the top of a short climb, the District of Squamish general manager of engineering comes to a rock face overlooking the Valleycliffe neighbourhood. Around a bend is an arching cave, its entrance blocked by a rusting metal fence.
"This is the Plateau Reservoir," Barnett says.
It's also a big mystery. The reservoir holds the water that is pumped out of Squamish's seven wells, known collectively as the Powerhouse Springs. From the Plateau, the water is fed to Valleycliffe, downtown and up to Garibaldi Estates. Municipal officials have no idea who built the reservoir or when. Bigger yet, district staff haven't peaked inside it. It's cemented off. There's no door, no lid and no easy way to check it out.
The district has solved one puzzle, though, and it's connected to the creek that never runs dry. Per capita, Squamish residents consume almost double the amount of water of the average Canadian, a cool 688 litres per day. That puts Squamish residents among the top water users in the world; the communities with the highest daily use in the United States, the country that leads the planet's water consumption according to the Conference Board of Canada, is approximately 575 litres.
Squamish's figures seemed a bit out of touch, Barnett thought. He suspected one of the reasons lay behind the cement wall. And he was right. By measuring water in and out of the closed off Plateau Reservoir, staff determined it is leaking, fast - 19 million litres a year.
And it's not just the reservoir that's losing water. Barnett likens the district's water pipe system to that of a "perforated garden hose." Every year the district faces serious pipe failures, Barnett says. Just last year, staff discovered a three- to four-million-litre-per-year leak in the front yard of a house in the Garibaldi area.
Joining the Plateau Reservoir and pipes on the to-do list is the eight-year-old reservoir at Quest University. Serving Garibaldi Highlands and Brackendale, the tank is too small and empties quickly during busy times or when the need is greatest, such as during firefighting. The large fluctuations in the reservoir's water level tax the community's wells, Barnett says.
Squamish's geography is good at hiding the system's faults. Its spongy ground absorbs water easily and the municipality has a gravity-fed water system. If the district had to pump water through its network, the leaks would be evident through elevated electricity bills, Barnett says. As it is, for years municipal officials were able to largely overlook the problem.
"We have just ignored it," Barnett says.
This is about to change. Water is one of Barnett's passions. For nine years, Barnet sat as a director for Water For People, an organization that brings entrepreneurs, civil society, governments and communities together to build and maintain reliable, safe water systems around the world. He helped raise millions of dollars for projects.
"Worldwide, 6,000 people a day die from poor water quality," he says.
The district's water system makes up the largest chunk of the municipality's asset replacement value at 27 per cent - equaling $115 million. In 2010, district staff estimated that to pay for the upgrades to the 122 kilometres of water mains, which transport 24 million litres a day, and reservoirs, the municipality should be spending $94 per resident on a water capital program. At the time, the municipality was pitching in just under a fifth of that.
District officials have said the water utility rate must increase 68 per cent over a five-year period. If the federal or provincial government throw in10 per cent of the water utility's capital expenditures - $4.555 million over 30 years - the rate of increase would drop to 59 per cent. But with most of Canada's infrastructure built between the 1950s and 1970s, Squamish isn't banking on that money. Nationwide, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates $31 billion worth of upgrades is needed to fix water systems.
In March, council voted on a 10 per cent utility rate increase, raising water rates from approximately $252 per residential assessment of $374,000 to $277 - a $25 hike. Next year property owners could face a 15 per cent bump, followed by 10 per cent in 2014 and 15 per cent in 2015.
Last year, the District of Squamish initiated a leak detection program. This year it plans to do a reservoir site assessment. The $50,000 study will review the hydraulics of the system and the locations of the existing reservoirs, seeking possible new locations.
Replacing leaky pipes and the Plateau Reservoir will significantly decrease water consumption, Barnett says. That will prolong the lifespan of the community's current water source. But by 2032, by which time Squamish's population is expected to double, the district will have to tap into a new aquifer, Barnett says. None of that is covered in the utility rate increases contained in the five-year plan.
But the good news is that Squamish has options.
Luckily for the district, a pipe is already in place up Mashiter Creek. Conceptually, the municipality might be able to use the existing pipeline and hook into an aquifer several kilometres above Garibaldi Highlands, a big money saver for taxpayers, Barnett notes. The district also received a project certificate from the Environmental Assessment Office for the Mamquam aquifer at the same time it opened its current wells, says Len Clarkson, Vancouver Coastal Health's drinking water officer for the region.
Squamish is in a unique position, Clarkson says. There's plenty of good quality water available.
"[The community's water] doesn't require filtration or enhanced treatment," the Squamish resident adds, noting that building a filtration plant alone costs $5 to $10 million.
Repairing the district's leaking reservoirs and mains prevents further deterioration of the system, Mayor Rob Kirkham said. In the long run, it will save water and money.
"This work will go a long way to ensure enough water to supply the growing residential demand," he says.
