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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: RDKB Area C says no to riparian regulation and yes to education

The RDKB Area C has been communicating with the lakeshore tax payers of Christina Lake for the past two years.

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) Area C has been communicating with the lakeshore tax payers of Christina Lake for the past two years.

We have been asking if they are in support of developing our own Riparian Area Regulation in order to further protect Christina Lake.

We have hosted numerous public meetings, small gatherings, discussion through email and the Water Front Property Owners Society.

A few facts first:

This idea was NOT presented by the Christina Lake Stewardship Society, it was initiated by the APC Because at that time the province was presenting a Provincial Riparian Regulation that was not at all community friendly

This idea was NOT driven by David Durand so he and his green house could make more money.  David is the chair of the advisory planning commission (APC) and he was working on this, along with your regional director so that we could share information and gauge public interest.

Why were we so interested in the opinion of the lake shore owners?  Because they are the ones that would need to buy into this act. If they didn’t, we would be introducing something that would not be respected or adhered to.

What feedback did we ultimately get?  An overwhelming no.  Some are very interested in the information however; they would rather be part of an education program, whereby property owners voluntarily provided riparian protection on their property.  And some just plain were not interested at all.

What are our next steps?  We will abandon the Riparian Act Regulation, however we will be happy to work with the Lake Shore Property Owners Society to provide education. We will also be asking for pictures from those who did protect the riparian area of their property and we will be featuring those in the Christina Lake News on a regular basis as kudos to those property owners, and as an example to those who are interested in the protection of their lake shore.

Many of the comments around the health of the lake pointed to septic systems that have not been upgraded.

Once again, I have had numerous dialogues with the province on this provincial issue. Please if you think this is a problem in your area contact:

Mike Sokal, environmental water quality at mike.sokal@gov.bc.ca. Health and Recreational Water Quality’s Cheryle Unger can be contacted at cheryl.unger@interiorhealth.ca.

Lisa Tedesco is a good start point for forwarding concerns pertaining to Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Lands Forest and Natural Resources and Department of Fisheries and water quality concerns can be sent to lisa.m.tedesco@gov.bc.ca.

Also feel free to suggest that these people use the dye tablets available from the Christina Lake Stewardship to test their system.

Grace McGregor is Area C director for the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary