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NDP critics who've taken up the cause of Spallumcheen residents who can't drink water from their own taps plan to visit the community.
Environment critic George Heyman and agriculture critic Lana Popham are expected to view the Steele Springs site on March 29 as well as the pumphouse that pulls water from the tainted Hullcar aquifer (103), says Al Price of the Save Hullcar Aquifer Team.
More than 300 people get their drinking water from the aquifer, provided by the Steele Springs Waterworks District. The water is the subject of two Interior Health water advisories related to nitrate contamination.
The NDP picked up the cause in February, shortly after the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria took on the case.
Heyman peppered Environment Minister Mary Polak in the legislature with questions on the issue this week.
“High nitrate levels are a serious concern for infants less than six months old, for the elderly, and they can increase the risk of stomach cancer in adults,” Heyman said Thursday.
He noted it has been two years since a local dairy farm was slapped with a compliance order on application of effluent to its fields.
“Tests from Steele Springs in December and January measure nitrate concentrations more than double the goal originally laid out in the compliance order,” said Heyman.
He said residents, including members of the Splatsin First Nation, were “legitimately worried about their health” and that risks continue to escalate.
Polak said provincial officials are closely watching the farm in question and had not allowed effluent spreading in “an uncontrolled way.”
“This is a situation where we are advised by the experts who are with the Ministry of Health, who are with the Ministry of the Environment, that through their ongoing study that they have yet to identify a specific source of the nitrate contamination,” said the minister.
Polak said staff are working to develop a long-term plan to improve the health of the aquifer.
Readings from monthly samples taken from the aquifer are provided to the Steele Springs district within days and, if they exceed guidelines, also go to the Township of Spallumcheen.
Recent test results from eight sites in the Hullcar Valley are also available in the environmental impact assessment memo on the Ministry's website, said Polak.
