Needed: A freshwater protection strategy for Bowen Island
In early June, Dr. Peter Ross of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation presented Bowen Island Municipal Council with the results of a comprehensive analysis of pollutants in the Grafton Lake water supply.
The findings revealed traces of human waste, highlighting the need for improved watershed management and better public education on responsible residential and recreational best practices. This is an island-wide issue: surface waters and groundwaters everywhere across the island are vulnerable to contamination by human activities.
Given the critical importance of Bowen’s freshwater resources for both people and the natural environment, the Bowen Island Conservancy supports the development of a freshwater protection strategy.
Such a strategy should include specific goals and objectives articulated in the current review of the island’s Official Community Plan (OCP).
The Conservancy recently submitted its environmental priorities to the OCP committee. A key priority is creating a freshwater protection strategy for the island. This includes protection of groundwater recharge areas along with ‘green infrastructure’ like healthy forests and wetlands that enhance both the island’s quantity and quality of freshwater.
Such a freshwater strategy complements another Conservancy priority – protection of Bowen’s biodiversity because so many plants, animals, and birds depend on its lakes, ponds, wetlands, and streams.
Bowen’s climate future of hotter summer temperatures and more intense summer droughts will reduce water supplies for people and nature. As we manage these challenges, we need to look beyond conventional engineering solutions of water treatment plants and bigger dams.
We need to embrace the natural engineering already at play on our lands: forests and wetlands slow runoff, so rain and stream flow can sink into the earth to rebuild our groundwater reservoirs, while wetlands act as natural filtration plants that capture pollutants.
Maintaining and enhancing this ‘green infra- structure’ doesn’t require big capital expenditures; instead we need effective science-based planning to protect these natural assets, and rehabilitation where required.
For example, the Islands Trust has recently mapped groundwater recharge potential of the island, identifying specific areas where surface water can most effectively sink into the earth to recharge our groundwater system. Protecting this recharge system should be a top priority when designing land developments.
The formulation of a new OCP for Bowen Island offers us a unique opportunity to chart a better way forward.
Let’s embrace this opportunity to protect precious water resources for the wellbeing of people and nature!
About the report
Ross PS, Scott S, Noël M. 2025. A water quality snapshot of Grafton Lake, Nexwlélexwm (Bowen Island). Raincoast Conservation Foundation. DOI: 10.70766/31.2601
About Bob Turner and Owen Plowman
Bob Turner is the Director of the Bowen Island Conservancy. Owen Plowman is President of the Bowen Island Conservancy. www.bowenislandconservancy.org
A version of this article was first published in the Bowen Island Undercurrent on Friday, June 27, 2025.
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