The provincial government is drawing fire for ongoing water quality concerns in Spallumcheen.
George Heyman, NDP environment critic, challenged Environment Minister Mary Polak to take action over high nitrates in the Hullcar aquifers in the Legislature Thursday.
“Spallumcheen and Hullcar Valley residents, along with the Splatsin First Nation, are fed up with this government’s failure to protect their drinking water. They’re legitimately worried about their health,” he said.
In response, Polok stated staff with the ministries of health and environment have not identified a specific source of the nitrite contamination.
“They are working very closely, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to do that, in order to develop a long-term plan to ensure we can improve the health of the aquifer," she said.
“That work is ongoing, and we are, of course, taking very seriously the impact on the health and the environment of the surrounding area.”
Heyman, insisted, though, that the nitrates are coming from a nearby farm operation.
“This government not only allows the spraying of liquid manure to continue and the risk to continue to escalate; it flaunts its own information laws and forces residents to do their own water testing,” he said.
According to Polak, the ministry’s operations branch recently took samples from eight sites in the Hullcar Valley.
“All of that is available in the environmental impact assessment memo that is currently on the Ministry of Environment’s website,” she said.
Gary Holman, deputy environment critic, also questioned Polak.
“Residents are concerned that the minister is fiddling while their water is being polluted. They want changes to effluent disposal methods that will ensure their water is safe to drink,” he said.
“The Freedom of Information commissioner is investigating the ministry’s failure to follow its own law and proactively release information on public health concerns.”
However, Polak insists testing of the water is done monthly.
“In addition to that, we are currently conducting additional work together with Interior Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment to make long-term plans to ensure that the aquifer’s health over the long term can be improved,” she said.