Electonic Well Monitoring Program:
Previously well monitoring on Bowen Island has been completed by volunteers, and included taking periodic manual readings from several wells, usually located on the volunteer’s properties. For this, as well as the collection of many well logs across Bowen Island, the community is largely indebted.
Currently, the Public Works Department is using state-of-art technology to monitor several wells in Bowen Island. A program update can be viewed below:
Leading Change Towards A Sustainable Water Future:
A Community-Based Water Framework And Change Strategy For Bowen Island, British Columbia
By: Lori Henderson, M.Sc.
In the fall of 2005, Royal Roads graduate student Lori Henderson arrived on Bowen Island to undertake a study of the water system governance and issues here on Bowen Island. Lori interviewed stakeholders including Municipal Council and staff, ministry of health regulators, the water system operation and maintenance contractor, water system local advisory and management committee members, and other local experts. The result is a comprehensive report including recommendation regarding education, strategy change, governance structure change, and other issues. A copy of the abstract follows.
Thesis Abstract
Canada’s abundant freshwater resources have traditionally fostered a highly consumptive per capita water use and a supply-side approach to water provision. Neither is sustainable in the face of increased populations, development, activity and climate change. Several regions now face water availability problems, and these challenges are amplified in smaller communities with limited financial resources and dispersed settlement patterns. This thesis develops a community-based demand-side approach to meeting municipal water needs on Bowen Island, British Columbia, and recommends how this could be implemented and transferred to other small communities. The author proposes a framework for island water management with demand-side options drawn from the literature and from interviews with local water suppliers and users, and presents a leading change strategy to facilitate implementation of Bowen Island’s vision for a sustainable water future. Lastly, the author briefly explores how the case study experience on Bowen Island can be transferred to other communities.
Draft – Infrastructure Design Bylaw
The development of infrastructure design standards has been an ongoing and evolving process since approximately 2002. The goal of the development of these standards is to provide a level ‘playing field’ for developments and to adopt standards which are in keeping with Bowen Island’s rural setting, and setting the standard for low impact construction.
These standards would typically be used by design engineers, whereas documents such as the Official Community Plan (OCP) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB) are typically used by planners, developers and landowners.
Initial versions of the document were drafted as a requirement of the Cowan Point Subdivision for road standards. This process created lower speed roads for lower volume area, which enabled the roads to ‘bend’ with the shape of the topography rather than trying to ‘conquer nature’ with large scale cut and fill construction techniques. This also included the development of a ‘byway’ road standard for up to eight homes, which is a single lane road with pullouts for passing. The road standards do not compromise the structural integrity or safety aspects of the design itself.
When reviewing how to implement these road standards, it was determined that similar standards should also be created for other infrastructure types (water distribution, drainage, sewer, etc…), and that this should be compiled into a separate bylaw into itself. Items related to these issues included in the Official Community Plan and Land Use Bylaw would be incorporated into this document, and deleted from those documents at the time of the next OCP and LUB reviews.
The draft bylaw has been used in practice for subdivision applications since late 2004, regardless of its draft status. It is anticipated that the infrastructure design standards bylaw will eventually be accompanied by a Subdivision Servicing Bylaw which will identify which level of infrastructure servicing is required in each zoning or area.It is anticipated that once municipal staff incorporate minor changes into the proposed bylaw, based on its use over the past year and a half, it will be presented to the public at a general open house meeting, and then presented back to council for adoption.
Please note that the Municipality does not differentiate between strata-owned road design standards and Public road standards, for the purposes of development and subdivision.
Tunstall Bay Boat Launch:
In May of 2009 the Public works Department put in an application with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to allow the Bowen Island Municipality to install a boat launch at Tunstall Bay Beach. We are awaiting a reply from DFO and once approval has been granted, work will commence, weather and tide permitting.
