Abstract
British Columbia is Canada’s third-largest province, with most people located in the lower mainland and the city of Greater Victoria. British Columbia has abundant natural resources and good water quality in some areas that rank among the highest in the world. However, the current laws and regulations could be strengthened to promote resource conservation without discouraging business growth. The water allocation principle of first in time, first in right results in an over-allocation of water rights regardless of changing water inventories, and changing inflows and recharge rates for aquifers. The government of British Columbia has now passed the Water Sustainability Act of 2014, which will come into force in 2015. The purpose of this chapter is to assess the progress that British Columbia has made in water management. We show that cattle farming, mining, oil and gas, as well as the forestry and logging industries pose potential hazards to water quality in British Columbia.
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- 1.
Health Authorities in British Columbia are composed of the Provincial Health Services Authority and the other five district health authorities: Fraser Health, Interior Health, Vancouver Island Health, Northern Health, and Vancouver Costal Health. The Provincial Health Services Authority coordinates the functioning of the other five health authorities.
- 2.
The groundwater is not required to be treated if it is well known that the groundwater is of high quality.
- 3.
The source is from personal email communication with a director of Small Water Users Association of British Columbia.
- 4.
The Globe and Mail, August 7, 2014.
- 5.
Windthrow is a natural phenomenon and it refers to the trees that are broken by the force of wind, the mutual action of soil and the base as well as the biological and mechanical attributes of trees. Riparian reserve zones are prone to windthrow (British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations 2014).
- 6.
See http://www.straight.com/news/david-suzuki-how-mountain-pine-beetle-devastated-bcs-forests. Accessed November 30, 2014.
- 7.
Personal correspondence with Oliver Brandes, Co-Director of POLIS (Center for Global Studies) and Adjunct professor of law, and of public administration, University of Victoria.
- 8.
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Dore, M.H. (2015). Water Policy in British Columbia. In: Water Policy in Canada. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15883-9_8
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