|
As the days lengthen, there is a lot to do, in the garden and the community. Prepare the ground, start seeds, inspect tools, share ideas, and join with others to come to grips with the challenges and possibilities in our community.
|
|
The Time is Now: building a resilient community together is an opportunity for members of Transition Sooke, as well as the public, to present innovative ideas or ongoing projects for small group discussions. With a focus on practical local initiatives, this event will feature small group discussions about topics as diverse as water, tiny homes, resilient neighbourhoods, climate anxiety, zero waste, car sharing, community development commissions, council advocacy and much more! If you are interested in leading a small group discussion to build support for your project, contact Susan Clarke for the guidelines.
Folks who would like to act as volunteers to help with room set up and tear down, staffing the greeting table, or assisting in other ways are welcome to contact the forum organizing team.
|
|
|
|
Photo: A. Dolan
People enjoy stimulating discussions at Transition Sooke forums and events. This photo is from fall 2019.
|
|
The Rain Gauge — It All Starts with Rain The first in a 12-part series by Chris Moss, an Otter Point resident
Pretend it’s snowing, an increasingly rare event on the south of Vancouver Island. Another form of rainfall, snow stays on the ground as a reservoir of moisture and slowly melts to recharge the watersheds and the aquifers under them.
An aquifer is nature’s underground water storage system. Water filters through the soil and rocks until it meets an impervious layer of rock or clay. At that point the ground above starts to fill and saturate with water. This is an aquifer layer from which many of our wells draw water. Sooke and Victoria are served by one deep aquifer and 1 shallow ones.
Rainfall on south Vancouver Island is becoming increasingly rare during our summers. Climate change is pushing our rainfall into shorter periods of time, so that a season of rain or drizzle is followed by a season of dry weather. This is not good for the watersheds or the aquifers.
Rain, falling in short strong bursts, does not have time to sink slowly into the land. Drought has made the land so dry and compacted that water simply runs off. We saw this last fall when, digging down three inches into the garden after the first good rainfall, the soil was still dry and dusty.
Everything we depend on has been based on the belief that we have plentiful water in our region. The Leech River watershed and the Sooke Lake watershed provide water to Sooke Lake and from there to all the Greater Victoria Region population. From North Saanich down to Victoria, across to Colwood, Langford and Sooke this one reservoir provides all the piped drinking water. This water is used for drinking and cooking. However, it is also wasted for watering lawns, power washing driveways, and a thousand other uses that do not require potable drinking water quality.
Sooke Lake is a remarkable water supply but it is still dependent on rainwater and snowfall to fill the lake. The water level in the lake is usually at its lowest point in the September to October months, falling to 30% of its total volume. Then the rains typically come and fill the reservoir back to full.
But rainfall volumes are shrinking. Data from the weekly CRD's website water watch shows that average rainfall from 1914 to 2021 for the period September 1 to December is 677.6mm. In the same period in 2022 we got only half that (334.1mm) and as of mid December, 2022 we got only 19% of our normal average – 55.2mm instead of 293.8mm.
Without the slow, even, rainfall that we have been used to getting in the fall, the entire region from Sooke through Otter Point, Shirley, and Jordan River to Port Renfrew and the Rural Resource Lands could face lower water aquifers and drying wells. An intense rain over a short period will not refresh the aquifers as evenly as longer rain periods have done in the past. Surface water moves too quickly down the small streams and rivers. On the way it scours the stream beds and erodes the natural terrain, destroying fish and animal habitat. Large scale forest harvesting has added to the inability of the land to slow down and save this water on the land and to allow it to sink into aquifers.
What can we do when our wells dry out? Hauling drinking water is costly and drilling a deeper well can be much more costly. The new well may or may not yield water, or it may be only a temporary solution.
Next month-- It All Starts with Water
|
|
|
|
CRD Water Tours
Everyone can be more aware of our Sooke Lake Reservoir and the source of our clean drinking water. CRD Water Tours are of interest to Sooke region residents who are concerned about local water. Registration opens May 1st. The tours run June 1 to 25 Thursday through Sunday. Register early as these tours fill up quickly every year.
To register, visit the crd website. Online registration opens May 1. This website will be updated soon, so stay tuned.
David and Carol Mallett.
|
|
|
Dermit Lies Down to be Counted by Gord Wallace
|
|
|
|
|
