Tax payers will be on the hook for any remediation
RE: Cowichan Fish and Game Association
I saw the comment from Mike Flatt and felt compelled to provide additional informational to the conversation. We live adjacent to the Cowichan provincial park and our 57’ well is one of the closest to the gun range. We had started testing the well for minerals in the Spring of 2017 to get a baseline of how our iron filtration system was working. The test that Spring did not show any lead in the well when the aquifer was at its most fullest. We then tested again in the Fall 2017 when the aquifer was at its lowest and we’re shocked to discover high levels of lead. Higher than what the water standards allow for drinking water. To put this into context for folks, our home was newly built in 2016 with Pex plumbing and all of our plumbing fixtures meet California standards meaning they do not contain lead parts. What we found was lead in the well and then even higher levels bioaccumulating in our iron softener.
This report has been recently shared with the Ministry of Environment. We expect the government to do comprehensive testing of other wells in the community over a prolonged period to determine if other wells are also contaminated. I am neither for or against the gun club, I don’t see it as an ‘us’ or ‘them’ dialogue. That is not the issue, safe drinking water is the concern, especially with the new provincial water sustainability act and mechanisms to protect Communities from brown sites such as gun ranges. At the end of the day it will be the tax payers who will be on the hook to remediate the site, soil and ground water. There’s more investigation that needs to occur.
Holly Caine
Duncan