Backwards Bureaucracies

They create holes in projects.
And then do nothing.

As reported in this blog story, mud bogging on the Aberdeen Plateau concerns everyone.
That is, everyone but the mud-boggers, campers at the water's edge and bureaucrats...at all levels, despite RDNO's water quality manager Renee Clark worried about a potential loss of a dam's integrity from public misbehaviour.

Apparently, 500 people were on Grizzly Lake during the past May long weekend.
No idea how many campers and mud boggers were on the entire plateau.

Campers on the water's edge?
Campers without bio-toilets and sanitary disposal facilities?
Party-goers with their usual assortment of bottles and cans and unsavory garbage?

Remember, folks....Greater Vernon Water has a strategy to continue work on the Duteau water treatment reservoirs, despite the Master Water Plan borrowing referendum failing last November.  And this is part of their strategy.

To that end, bureaucrats want to get the public riled up about what goes on up there, saying that "water utilities are unable to fence off watersheds because they are on provincial Crown land."

That is...and isn't true.

Read this from Metro Vancouver's water site:  "The watersheds are closed to the public for protection from pollution, erosion, fire and other hazards, with the exception of registered tours."

And another document shows that the primary use must be paramount...clean safe drinking water.  To that end, a No Trespassing policy was implemented (way back in 1927).  Officials also, for a time,  stopped logging from occurring.

 1. The primary purpose of watersheds is to provide clean, safe water.

  2. The watersheds will be managed to reflect and advance the commitment to the environmental stewardship and protection of those lands and their biological diversity.

 3.The management plan will be based upon the minimum intervention absolutely necessary to achieve objectives.

  4. The management plan will contain policies to return areas disturbed by human activities as close as possible to the pre-disturbance state consistent with the primary goal of protecting water quality.

5. The decision-making process will be transparent and open to the public

And read this from Coquitlam:  "These mountain reservoirs are in protected watersheds where no recreational or industrial activities are permitted."

Capilano Lake and Cleveland Dam:  "Dr Cleveland had the foresight to maintain a pristine water supply and restricted access to the watershed. The area surrounding Capilano Lake remains closed to the public."
 

Bureaucrats at RDNO have simply not created a Primary Use study document for the Duteau Creek water system.  Simple as that.

"What a bunch of hooey that we can't restrict access to watersheds," says Kia.

It's simply more bullshit from the Regional District of North Okanagan.
Smoke 'n mirrors for not doing their jobs effectively.