Tag Archives: Drilled wells

Water

Cortes Island’s First Aquifer Health Study

Cortes Island’s aquifer health study has been released and in this morning’s interviews we are speaking with Sylvia Barroso, of GW Solutions, the Senior Hydrologist who participated in this project, Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Island Housing Society and Mark Vonesch, Regional Director of Cortes Island. 

First, there are two key questions at the top of many people’s minds. Is there enough water in Cortes Island’s aquifers to support further development? And why were some of the island’s shallow wells not recharging during the recent drought? 

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Politics

Area C Director’s Report: UBCM, advocacy, island forestry, & well questionnaire

From the desk of Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney

Hello, The last week was jam-packed, a blur of learning, meetings, and networking as I attended the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) annual convention in Vancouver. UBCM is an opportunity to meet with provincial Ministers and Ministry staff and advocate for local and regional priorities & concerns, as well as learning & listening at workshops, forums & town hall-style events.

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Energy

The Expanding Local Market For Solar Power

A Cortes Island based solar company has been installing more systems that tie into the grid. 

There is a lot of potential for solar energy production in British Columbia. It has been largely untouched because of the province’s reliance on hydro-power and natural gas. As of October 2023, BC Hydro had 8,500 net metering customers with a combined solar capacity of 71 MW. This was only a fraction of the 4,609.5 MW of solar capacity tied to Canada’s grid that year. 

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Water

Joint We Wai Kai/ ICAN Team Monitoring Quadra Island Wells

Editor’s note: The well monitoring currently underway Quadra Island is a model of how this could be done on Cortes.

A joint We Wai Kai/ ICAN Water Security team has been monitoring Quadra Island wells for the past month as part of a much larger project to calculate the island’s water budget.   

“At the moment 13 wells are being monitored, and another three or four will be added from Cape Mudge. So there will probably be 17 deeper wells and  Eileen McKay, particularly, has been saying for a while that we need to add shallow wells.  We’ll be doing that hopefully this year,” explained Nick Sargent, a former professional hydrologist who is overseeing the well monitoring.

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Housing

Cortes Island’s First Housing Forum

About 100 people came together for Cortes Island’s first Housing Forum on Saturday, December 2, in Mansons Hall.   

There were break-out sessions devoted to tiny homes, rental housing, short term rentals, worker housing, empty homes, landlord-tenant relations, home upgrades and making land and home ownership more affordable. A session devoted to environmental issues was added at the last minute. 

The Forum began with opening addresses by Regional Director Mark Vonesch and Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Community Housing Society.  

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