MEDIA RELEASE

February 5, 2013

According to the recent media coverage, the future for the Shuswap Lakes Integrated Planning Process looked uncertain. A change in management combined with questions about funding for the future did not inspire optimism about where the most important initiative for the Shuswap was heading. However, reports from the recent meeting of SLIPP directors have restored some level of confidence regarding the award winning, innovative SLIPP program.

“The public has long supported the need to protect our watershed,” explained Shuswap Environmental Action Society (SEAS) President, Jim Cooperman, “and they should be encouraged by the enthusiasm expressed by SLIPP directors about the need for continuing the initiative and further improving the programs.”

Beginning in 2005, SEAS along with a number of other Shuswap environmental and stewardship organizations, advocated strongly for a cooperative governmental effort to address a growing number of concerns regarding declining water quality and a litany of negative impacts to the watershed and recreational values. In June 2007, these groups formed a watershed alliance to press for action. They released a list of 48 recommendations to coincide with SLIPP’s first public consultation meetings (see below).

Now, six years later, SLIPP can be evaluated on how well it has acted upon these important recommendations. Top marks are deserved for how SLIPP has improved cooperation amongst all the levels of government and the three regional districts within the Shuswap watershed. As well, mapping has been completed and is available on a public website that provides clear direction for foreshore planning, as well as for the successful restoration efforts that have been underway. Although SLIPP has had to survive with minimal funding, it has managed to put the focus on the most critical need, water quality monitoring, which is now in its third year.

However, one of the key recommendations made six years ago, to “create a permanent Water Basin Council or Board that includes representation from public interest groups to oversee and coordinate management and research,” remains unfulfilled. “Although water monitoring is critically important,” stressed Cooperman, “it was never meant to be an end in itself.” “The most important effort still remains, and that is to take action to reduce the level of nutrients and pollutants entering the watershed. And that includes greywater from houseboats and private vessels, an important effort that has been delayed due to pressure from the houseboat industry.”

“The Salmon and Shuswap Rivers are important, principal sources of phosphate input to the lake; excessive phosphate content is the main, well documented factor in downgrading the health of freshwater lakes. Much of this phosphate input is most likely from agricultural activity adjacent to these rivers, and has been long recognized. It needs to be tackled now, to ensure the continued integrity of the lake”, explained Hugh Tyson, a SEAS member.

“We urge the SLIPP directors and particularly the new Chair, CSRD Area F (North Shuswap) director, Larry Morgan and vice-chair, Salmon Arm Mayor Nancy Cooper; to work towards expanding SLIPP to cover the entire watershed and to improve the level of funding and support so it can successfully achieve its goals and thus address the desires of the vast majority of Shuswap residents,” urged Cooperman.

“In order for SLIPP to move forward, it will also require full support and improved funding from both the federal and provincial governments,” added Tyson. “Hopefully, the issue of protecting our watershed will become important during the upcoming provincial election.”

Learn more about SLIPP, at www.slippbc.com.

SLIPP forging ahead

By Barb Brouwer – Salmon Arm Observer

Published: February 21, 2013 11:00 AM

SLIPP is not sliding away – not yet anyway. Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process steering committee members met in City of Salmon Arm council chambers Feb. 1 to discuss the project’s future. The Fraser Basin Council had been asked to take over administration of the process at the end of 2012 amid concerns regarding oversight and communication issues.

SLIPP was created in 2007 in response to concerns regarding increased development, pollution entering lakes in the Shuswap watershed, and conflicting recreation demands. Ian McGregor, then-Fish and Wildlife manager of  the Ministry of Environment’s Thompson Region, was the main catalyst in the group that included stakeholders from various levels of government and environmental groups.

Priorities were established with one of the top ones being the need for water-quality monitoring, something that couldn’t be accomplished without a substantial cash infusion. Two years ago, the Thompson Nicola Regional District, Salmon Arm, Sicamous and Columbia Shuswap Regional District electoral areas C, D, E and F agreed to fund a three-year pilot project with annual allocations of $335,000.

Prior to his death, Electoral Area C South Shuswap director Ted Bacigalupo, who was a champion and chair of SLIPP’s steering committee, enthusiastically kept partners up-to-date on activities. Following his death, McGregor was overseeing both technical and administrative roles. The funding partners had hoped to relieve McGregor of the administrative pressures allowing him to concentrate on the technical committee, where his skills were invaluable.

This was something CSRD chief administrative officer Charles Hamilton made clear at a Jan. 9 meeting at the regional district office, a suggestion that led to McGregor’s resignation.
“Ian McGregor has been the driving force behind the initiative and I don’t want to see his role diminished in any way; given his technical expertise and his history with the SLIPP initiative,” Hamilton emphasized, noting he had simply suggested a more formal oversight because public funds are involved and because he was being inundated with questions about SLIPP’s status.

“I think it’s very unfortunate that Mr. McGregor has elected to step aside because his contributions have been essential to the success of this process,” Hamilton said. “At no time was anyone on the steering committee or on staff questioning that. The intention was not to be critical of his performance but simply to strengthen what I perceived to be perhaps somewhat less than robust administrative oversight.”

Those concerns seem to have been quelled and an air of optimism renewed at the recent steering committee meeting in Salmon Arm, where CSRD’s Area F North Shuswap director Larry Morgan was elected chair. “We had a good positive meeting, we’re encouraged about working with the Fraser Basin Council and we’re going to provide more oversight, at least this year,” he said, noting there will be a minimum of four steering committee meetings this year. “We’ll have to get into the details before we know where we’re going and what, if any,  changes we need to make. Beyond that no decisions have been made at this point.”

Morgan admits he was “set back a bit” at being elected chair of the steering committee, considering his former criticism of the process. “Now I’m wearing a different hat, so I have to view this with an air of responsibility to the process,” he says. “I was more of a heckler; now I’m responsible for helping to set the direction of SLIPP going forward. We want to make it work. It might be working differently than it has in the past, but we wanna make it work.”

Jim Cooperman, president of the Shuswap Environmental Action Committee [actually we are a Society], said he had been worried about SLIPP’s future and relieved by the tone of the Feb. 1 meeting. “Top marks are deserved for how SLIPP has improved co-operation among all the levels of government and the three regional districts within the Shuswap watershed,” he says. “Mapping has been completed and is available on a public website that provides clear direction for foreshore planning, as well as for the successful restoration efforts that have been underway. Although SLIPP has had to survive with minimal funding, it has managed to put the focus on the most critical need, water quality monitoring, which is now in its third year.”

SLIPP’s public advisory committees and partner agencies will meet in March and the steering committee will meet the following week to address specific projects that are underway or slated to get underway this year.

SHUSWAP WATERSHED ALLIANCE

Recommendations for the Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process (from July, 2007):

All issues:

• Incorporate climate change impact assessments and adaptation measures into all decisions made through the process
• Develop a monitoring program to measure the impacts of climate change
• Improve access to information with a website that contains up-to-date news and data
• Ensure lake shore management looks beyond the needs of just fish
• Expand the plan to cover the entire Shuswap Basin and create a permanent Basin Council or Board that includes representation from public interest groups to oversee and coordinate management and research
• Create an office and a 1-800 number for by-law and agency staff to enforce regulations and serve as trouble shooters for all issues of concern within the Basin
• Revise administrative boundaries to ensure the entire Basin is covered by the same government staff
• Consider revising regional district boundaries to bring the entire Basin under one jurisdiction
• Increase the representation on the CSRD from the South Shuswap
• Provide public education through outreach to increase understanding of the issues and the need for improvements
• Add a tax to marine gas sales to fund Basin stewardship programs

Foreshore Development:

• Moratorium on all proposed new marinas and marina expansions
• Use existing salmon habitat mapping, assessments of natural riparian areas, and water intake locations to zone the foreshore
• Ensure new marinas or marina expansions are only allowed in appropriate zones
• Develop ways to restore foreshore habitat where possible, including the Sicamous channel
• Ensure trails are not build along lake, river and creek shorelines where erosion could occur
• Zoning and Growth Management:
• Disallow all floating buildings larger than 100 sq. feet
• Use zoning to ensure rural quality of life is maintained
• Require OCPs for the entire Basin
• Develop specific plans for Blind Bay to avoid further deterioration of water quality
• Ensure OCPs place limits on developments near the Basin shorelines
• Obtain authority from ILMB to allow for local regional district management of foreshore approvals through a development permit process
• Ensure building permits are required throughout the Basin
• Revise highway regulations to remove the loophole that allows inadequate road access to phased developments

Water Quality and Waste Management:

• Ensure liquid waste management plans disallow both public and private sewage effluent outfalls into the watershed
• Begin the process to end the use of the watershed for sewage effluent in Salmon Arm and Enderby
• Develop an effective and consistent water quality monitoring program that focuses on the areas of concern, including Salmon Arm and Tappen Bays, Blind Bay and Mara Lake and includes testing for trace chemicals and pharmaceuticals
• Ensure BC Parks, the Ministry of Environment and the houseboat companies work together to increase the number of and improve the existing pump out stations on the lake for both private and commercial boats
• Obtain more funding for the restoration of the Salmon River
• Enforce stricter rules on agriculture, including grazing leases on crown land to prevent pollution and restrict irrigation during the fall when water is needed for salmon spawning
• Develop by-laws or legislation to require testing and clean-up if necessary of old septic systems near the lake
• Ban the use and sale of formaldehyde products for holding tanks in RVs and boats
• Develop regulations that prevent the dumping of grey water, black water and bilge water in areas where there are drinking water intakes
• Develop a public education program to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides near the Basin shorelines

Recreation Management:

• Require all boat motors to meet the highest North American standards
• Restrict and eventually phase-out jet-skis
• Improve enforcement of noise by-laws and ensure loud boat engines are taken off the lake
• Maintain and improve public access to the lakeshore
• Enforce a 10 kph speed limit on the Shuswap River and ban all jet boats
• Develop a program like Air Care for boats with stickers that show boats have been tested which can be visible for RCMP, environment staff or DFO staff.  The fines collected could be used to support the work the Basin Council or Board.
• Enforce laws to ensure all large boats contain both black water and grey water holding tanks
• Improve the regulations regarding fuelling water craft
• Enforce regulations on unauthorized private houseboat and boat moorage
• Require marinas to remove milfoil under docks and moorage areas
• More efforts are needed to control noisy parties and lakeside littering by marine campers

Shuswap Watershed Alliance member organizations:

Shuswap Water Action Team, Shuswap Environmental Action Society,, Shuswap Lake Coalition, South Shuswap Property Owners Association, Blind Bay Area Association, Shuswap Naturalists, Council of Canadians, Friends of Mara Lake, Shuswap River Keepers, Swansea Point Community Association, Committee for a Strong Sustainable Salmon Arm and Sugar Lake and Middle Shuswap Stewards