Where do we go from here?

Unlike the Cowichan River, the #Koksilah is an uncontrolled #river with no storage and as such, there are limited options available to manage flows. The only options available to us are to change our current practices around #LandUse and #WaterUse. Most importantly, the #KoksilahRiver is challenging all of us to work together to collaboratively identify and implement solutions that will impact us all. New collaborations and partnerships are emerging.

An informal “Koksilah #DroughtManagement team” has been formed to discuss how to collaboratively make short term in-season decisions and work with water users to navigate periods of low flow. This ad-hoc group is comprised of representatives from #FLNRORD, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Cowichan Station’s Koksilah Working Group, BC Dairy Association, BC Agriculture Council, Cowichan Watershed Board, Farmland Advantage, Water Survey of Canada, Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre and private forestry representatives.

In the longer term, an innovative government to government partnership has been struck between Cowichan Tribes and the FNLRORD to explore and scope the feasibility of initiating a joint #WaterSustainability Planning process, an innovative new tool under #BCWaterSustainabilityAct (2016).

For more information about the potential of Water Sustainability Plans, see Curran, D. and O.M. Brandes. 2019 Water Sustainability Plans: Potential, Options and Essential Content (2019) by Deborah Curran and Oliver M. Brandes, University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre and the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.

https://poliswaterproject.org/polis-research-publication/water-sustainability-plans/

"As one element in the modernized provincial water regime, Water Sustainability Plans are a promising tool that can enable and enhance adaptive water management and new governance relationships that express core elements of government-to-government relationships for water and watersheds, as well as address the challenges of environmental flows, sustainable groundwater management, drought planning and protecting and enhancing watershed health."

Deborah Curran & Oliver M. Brandes
Water Sustainability Plans: Potential, Options and Essential Content (2019)

The Current Challenge.

Summer flows in the #KoksilahRiver have been exceptionally low in recent years at times when demand for water is the greatest. This threatens the survival of resident and anadromous #salmonid species and the #AquaticEcosystem.

In August 2019, Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development #FLNRORD #biologists determined that the #WaterFlow levels were too low to support adequate #habitat conditions. A Ministerial Order to cease using water was issued to specific water users (both surface and groundwater licensees and unlicensed groundwater users) to protect fish populations. The Order was issued on August 16th, 2019 and repealed on September 18th, 2019 when #RiverFlows increased.

Over the last number of years, FLNRORD staff, #CowichanTribes, community members, organizations and consultants have undertaken several initiatives to better understand and encourage voluntary reductions in #WaterUse. While these initiatives have improved awareness and our collective understanding of the complex #hydrology of the system, the factors affecting the flow rates are still unclear.

There is a need to better understand the relationship between water users, watershed residents and the watershed.