 Thank you for joining me today For this presentation of the decoding drought management Presentation under the Water Sustainability Act. My name is Ray Riley. I work with the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Before I get started, I'd just like to acknowledge that I'm joining you today from the traditional territory of the Okanagan silt people in The central Okanagan where I live and work and I'm grateful to do so The outline for today's presentation is we'll talk a little bit about Water Sustainability Act and licensing We'll talk about what we mean when we're talking about drought We'll go through the approaches to drought response on behalf of the province Talk about what science is considered and we'll touch on the roles and responsibilities Before I get started just want to talk about the provincial approach for drought for 2024 because it is changing The province recognizes our current climate trajectory towards multi-year drought conditions And we're shifting away from treating drought as something that's local and temporary to something that's provincial and long term Recognize the reactive way that we have approached drought in the past We plan to take a more provincially consistent and proactive approach such as ensuring that there's province-wide consistent messaging Through workshops like these and reorganizing our governance structures to improve coordination on drought across regions both internally and with our external partners We're focused on preparing planning and communicating And we have a renewed focus on development of our resilience to drought through early preparation better planning and improved communication On the importance of being prepared for drought Some current planning and preparation actions include supporting communities to develop water scarcity plans and Spring coordination calls for drought hazard preparedness planning We're also turning our attention to long-term drought preparedness pieces such as watershed and land use planning through things like the watershed security strategy We're also improving communication on drought management under the Water Sustainability Act Including improving our communications on the legal and regulatory tools We have under the WSA and the drought management actions we take to prepare for and respond to drought and water scarcity These workshops are one way we are taking action to improve drought communication We're also planning on issuing news bulletins earlier this year and improving web content and tools like the Drought Information Portal So starting with a little bit of history The first water license decisions were made in the province under the Gold Fields Act in 1859 These are important because they brought in the idea of first-in-time first-in-right and we're setting a precedence date on the license These purposes were mainly for things like irrigation stock watering and domestic The First Water Act was introduced in 1909 and it was concentrating solely on surface water and regulation of surface water Then in 2016 the Water Sustainability Act was brought in and that introduced the idea of groundwater regulation as well So the Water Sustainability Act is the primary legislation for the allocation of water It introduced the following principles So one as I've mentioned is the regulation of groundwater It brought in different measures to protect stream health such as environmental flow needs and it brought in other new tools for managing water use such as water sustainability plans and Bringing temporary protection orders now temporary protection orders existed Under a different piece of legislation prior to the WSA, but they've been brought into the WSA So there's a definition of environmental flow needs right here on the screen And that is the volume and timing of water flow required for the proper functioning of the aquatic ecosystem of the stream So water licenses grant to the holder the right to divert and use surface water and groundwater Different types of authorizations include water licenses. There's the transitioning groundwater users There are approval holders such as section 10 short-term use approvals Domestic users and then there are exemptions for things like perimeter drainage for a building or extinguishing a fire When we're making water license decisions Whether there's available water is made using the following decision graphic here on the right-hand side So we're looking at the EFN requirements for the stream. We're looking at what existing licenses already add up to We're looking at things like water reservations that may have been set aside for a specific purpose Such as municipal water supply or power needs or treaty negotiations And then whatever water is available beyond that is what's left of and what is available for allocation decisions Want to talk briefly about unauthorized use If you're using water without a license, you may be an unauthorized user Or if you've been told that you are an authorized user, here's what you need to do You need to stop using that water You need to reach out to front counter for assistance of guidance in making an application for an authorization Then you need to follow through and apply for a water licenses into a user There was a period for application as an existing groundwater user under the water sustainability act when it first came in That expired on February 28th, 2022 So existing use groundwater applicants have the right to continue to use and divert and use the water as they had been pending the decision on their existing use application Anyone who submitted a new use groundwater application after March 1st, 2022 Are not authorized to use that water until a licensed decision is made And I just want to mention that a water license application is not a guarantee that a water license will be issued Water licenses include several different terms and conditions Including stating a specific quantity of water that can be used The purpose for which it can be used and the timing of when it can be used A license gives the holder the right to construct, maintain and operate their works Things such as an intake, a pipe or a pump It also gives you the right to be notified of any application that comes in That is likely to detrimentally impact your licensed use of water And it gives you the opportunity to object and appeal to a decision that may come out of that Every authorization has a date of precedence, what's known as the priority date FITFER is the commonly used terminology for the system or the principle of water rights precedence When more than one authorization has been issued on the same stream or aquifer The authorization with the earliest priority has the first right to use any available water This includes surface water and hydrologically connected groundwater licenses So on the graphic on the right there shows we have a stream with three licenses on it We have the date of priorities on each of those, 1912, 2003 and 1969 There is also a groundwater license that has been issued which is hydrologically connected to that stream With the date of priority of 1971 So on the FITFER list 1912 would be the oldest, then 1969 would come next Then the groundwater license of 1971 would slot into that list Followed by the 2003 license I want to mention something that's new this year are administrative monetary penalties The administrative penalties regulation was introduced in January of 2024 And it introduces a new type of financial penalty for contravention or non-compliance under the Water Sustainability Act There are two different types of penalties One where there's a maximum of $100,000 fine for things like unauthorized use or damaging authorized works Or a maximum of $500,000 for things like contraventions to fish protection orders Fish population protection orders or through introducing a foreign matter into a stream These are an alternate to charging as a high value offense under the Water Sustainability Act Which may result in fines of up to $1 million are imprisonment Administrative monetary penalty investigations are conducted by the Ministry of Forests, Compliance and Enforcement Branch And the decisions are made by the Comptroller of Water Rights It's important to note that you can't be charged for both a high value offense under the WSA and administrative monetary penalties It's one or the other And these only apply to violations that have occurred after the effective date of the regulation, which is January 12, 2024 So the policy on investigations and decisions under this regulation are still in development So in part two, we'll discuss a little bit about what we mean when we talk about drought in this context So in the context of this presentation and these workshops, we're talking about hydrological drought Indicated by low water supply in streams and often groundwater wells as well where they're hydraulically connected to the streams Hydrological drought is often caused by a combination of insufficient snow accumulation, hot and dry weather, and delayed or insufficient precipitation Hydrological drought can often be predicted by using the core and supplemental indicators we have here In the early season core indicators, we use the forecasts of snow and of runoff that's coming when that snow melts During the season we use the 30-day precipitation averages and a 7-day average stream flow There's also supplemental indicators that we use such as the groundwater levels, stream temperatures, and then short and long-term weather forecasts These core and supplemental indicators are used to determine what's called the drought level There are six drought levels in the province ranging from zero to five Drought level zero means there's sufficient water to meet all the socioeconomic and ecosystem needs Drought level five means that adverse impacts to socioeconomic or ecosystem values are in almost certainty Drought responses to shared responsibility with the province, the federal government, and indigenous nations The province takes a stepped approach to drought response which can lead to regulatory actions under the Water Sustainability Act It's worth noting that these drought levels are often different than what's implemented by local authorities or local First Nations They have their own system and often these won't match The province will have a drought level and the local governments will have a drought stage And they may not match because of different local conditions that the local municipality or local First Nations may have So in part three we'll discuss a little bit about the provincial drought response The first step to provincial drought response includes non-regulatory approaches These are usually earlier in the season and when the drought levels are low These are things like communication on conservation and planning, different website information and resources Information about early season drought forecast indicators through things like the snow survey and the water supply bulletins from the River Forecast Centre This is the time when regional staff are identifying watersheds of concern and started to communicate with water users And they're also identifying critical environmental flow thresholds and fish population survival thresholds for streams of higher risk As we move up through the drought, as it is occurring, we may get from the non-regulatory to a response That's when things like the Drought Information Portal are activated Drought preparedness and response is coordinated through the regional teams Provincial staff including Ministry of Agriculture and Food Federal staff such as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans And different indigenous nations and local governments start to collaborate to assess the need for conservation and voluntary reductions As drought conditions progress, voluntary reduction in water use is encouraged by sending letters directly to water users There may be increased media presence and updates about evolving conditions And regional teams will often work with local governments as well to align our messaging Communications include things like drought information notices and early warning notices Voluntary reduction letters Last year, I think there were about 30,000 of these sent out And then letters include including notice of further voluntary reduction or regulatory action potential if flows worsen So moving from non-regulatory to regulatory approaches The WSA has regulatory tools and they're applied as a last resort when voluntary water conservation measures cannot adequately protect critical environmental flows or fish populations Regulatory action may be taken at any drought level, but regulatory actions to curtail water use become more likely as the drought conditions worsen Regional teams take action to curtail unauthorized water use in an effort to protect those who do have authorizations And review conditions of water licenses within a watershed of concern to see if there are any terms and conditions in those licenses that could be enforced or may help alleviate drought conditions Things like example is ordering people to release water from storage The Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship also works with the BC Energy Regulator to review and suspend short term water use authorizations such as section 10s that are held by the oil and gas sector And then we get to temporary protection orders and again I want to say that these orders to curtail authorized water use are considered as a last resort Some of the different tools that are available under the WSA for drought response There's three main regulatory tools for drought response section 93 describes general powers under the WSA for issuing orders in the context of drought response these orders can be issued to stop unauthorized use They can direct licensees to release water from storage or to enforce the precedence of rights when there is insufficient water supply for all users on the source Then there are sections 86, 87, 88, which are temporary protection orders and these all require ministerial authority to implement and we'll go into each one of these a little bit further So section 93 again it's general powers under the Water Sustainability Act for issuing orders these are distinctly different from temporary protection orders These give the authority to provide direction on the diversion use and storage of water They may be directed at unauthorized users to cease diversion and use or they may be directed at users with active existing use groundwater applications Sorry they may be directed to active users with active water licenses to enforce different terms and conditions on their licenses So sections 86 and 87 are in the act and they're designed to be used together this is a temporary protection order Essentially these put a volume of water for aquatic needs above all the licenses in the fit for scheme So the minister or the lieutenant governor and council makes a temporary order declaring a significant water shortage in an area where one or more streams have fallen or are at risk of falling below the critical environmental flow threshold When that happens a the comptroller of water rights under section 87 determines and orders the CEFT the critical environmental flow threshold for streams that is needed to prevent significant or irreversible harm to the aquatic ecosystem of the stream The CEFT has the earliest precedence and users may be ordered to reduce or restrict their water use according to their data precedence, regardless of what that water use purpose is Application of fit for does not consider the water use purpose, except where precedent states are the same. It does not consider the economic impacts or other public interests and the implementation of a section 86 and 87 order and the CEFT cannot be appealed. The definition for a CEFT I've mentioned the acronym a few times it's right there. It's the volume of water flow below which significant or irreversible harm to the aquatic ecosystem of a stream is likely to occur. Another temporary protection order is a section 88 temporary protection order. This is considered when flows become so low that a population of fish may be or maybe become threatened. Regional staff work with Department of Fisheries notions to identify and monitor impacts and to determine what the flow thresholds are needed to protect fish habitat and fish passage. The intent here is to minimize the impact to the fewest number of licensees while causing the greatest benefit back to the stream flow. Written into the legislation right into the WSA is that this option must consider the needs of agriculture and we'll discuss how it does that a little bit later on. The three different temporary protection order the three different regulatory approaches we've talked about the decision tree to walk us through. If the version and water use is contributing to water scarcity on a particular source then we move into targeted targets against the unauthorized users enforcing license terms and conditions seeking voluntary reductions. Then we come back and see if the water rights or if the aquatic ecosystems are still being affected. If they are then we ask the question does this only apply to water rights holders. If so then we move up and work through section 93 to enforce fit for. If the case is that the stream flow is going to fall below the CEFT or it's likely to fall below the CEFT or if there's a population of fish that are threatened we go to that lower stream there and then we consider either a section 8687 or a section 88. And on this next slide we'll go into some of the considerations. So we're looking at a lot of different considerations in this aspect when we're deciding whether a section 8687 or a section 88 is the proper avenue to take things like impacts to critical services like water purveyors. How to maximize benefit to fish survival while minimizing the impact of water users. What are the water users and what are those uses in the watershed. What are the sector impacts what what are the junior water licenses who are more likely to be shut off. What are their purposes are they stock watering holders versus the older licenses are irrigation licenses things like that. We're looking at the science what is the what is the surface water relationship what is the groundwater relationship who which fish are we talking about what are the ecosystems that exist in those areas. And then of course what are the impacts to agriculture. So when all these questions are answered or asked and then answered. Then it points to either a section 8687 or a section 88 order. Something I wanted to note mentioned was that the section 88 orders that were implemented for the coaxiala and the solemn river in 2023. They included curtailment of processing and manufacturing and other industrial uses such as golf course and freshwater bottling, and not just agricultural producers so it's not just agricultural producers that were impacted by that. So in this part of the presentation we'll talk about what is the science that's considered when we're making these decisions. Spend a little time providing some information on the science that's used to inform decisions on drought response actions and whether we need to look at using regulatory tools to curtail water use and to protect stream flows and aquatic habitats. We'll go into a little bit of these each one in the next few slides. I did want to mention that the last image there data collection and monitoring that's occurring through all the other steps and through all the other bits of science the other aspects of the science that we're talking about. So starting with stream flow and surface water. We have many water survey of Canada stations and there are many of them have a long term record of stream flow in watersheds across the province. For streams that don't have water survey of Canada stations. We have real time monitoring sites stalled by regional staff or by local partners. And then we also have staff with their feet in the streams doing field measurements. So this data is publicly available through either the environment Canada water survey of Canada. The website. Or through the provinces Aquarius portal. These are all these are also all linked through from the drought information portal. So we have an example of what the water survey of Canada graph there looks like from a station on the Salmon River near Salmon arm. You can see that the graph shows the stream flow discharge or the flow in the stream from May through to the middle of August. Starts out at about 12 cubic meters per second in May. We can see it's declining quite rapidly through June. There's a bit of a bump in late June there and then it continues its its march downward until it crosses what we consider the fish population survival threshold. In the third or fourth week of July there. So the key message on this slide is that we do have strong science base we do have a strong science base to understand the water inputs. We have real time monitoring and flow of surface water in many watersheds. So groundwater is is mostly hydrologically connected to rivers in most areas pumping groundwater wells can cause interception of groundwater that would have naturally discharged to the stream, which is potentially reducing the stream flow. When groundwater is pumped from connected aquifers it could reduce the aquifers contribution back to the river. There are two ways that pumping groundwater out of an aquifer can impact stream flow when water is being pumped from the ground either from a well or something like an online dugout. It can intercept what it can intercept where water being where water being pumped is removing or intercepting water that would otherwise make its way into the stream. Over time is pumping lowers the water table pumping can cause infiltration from the stream. That is showing in in graphic B and C there where the direction of flow of the water is actually changing from the aquifer to the stream. It's changing to from the stream down into the aquifer to be pumped out of the well. So a common question is you know I have a well that's 200 feet away from the stream how can it be possibly connected to that river. And this is showing how that can be pumping from a well can intercept groundwater that would have naturally discharged to the stream. And potentially reducing stream flows in those downstream areas. The province has some long term monitoring across many watersheds in the province through something called the provincial groundwater observation well network. This is this has been going on quite a long time and more observation wells are being added. On the screen here we can see there is a graphic of a groundwater well showing the water level in that well through 2023 it's going along and then it decreases quite suddenly in the on the late edge there on the right hand edge of 2023. Using these groundwater well information and the observation well network and pairing them with the surface water monitoring that we have. We can see the connection between wells and surface water, and we can see the impact that water withdrawal from those wells has on on flows in streams rivers. Using this information and other factors of the aquifer, we can apply what's called the groundwater curtailment model, which tells us tells us the direct impacts that shutting off wells will have on stream flows. So the science for fish populations, it's region dependent and depends on professional judgment of those regional experts, including things like assessment of migration, spawning rearing timing and flow needs. It depends on research and data collection we're always seeking robust long term data sets. It includes collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, local First Nations and other local fishery organizations. And it depends on fish protection biologists work in determining critical flow thresholds where they're necessary. So an example of this we saw last year from the Thompson Okanagan was in the Salmon River, where the Salmon River provides spawning and rearing habitat for the Thompson Chinook salmon coho salmon and rainbow trout. The timing of that Chinook lifestyle life cycle corresponds to the height of drought conditions. And is therefore particularly vulnerable to low flow periods and corresponding elevated water temperatures, which are exacerbated by intensive withdrawals from the stream and aquifer for irrigation. It was determined the critical flow threshold for Chinook migrating and spawning was defined as 1.27 cubic meters per second at the mouth of the Salmon River. Flows in the river were well below that threshold and migrating Chinook were at risk of stranding or not being able to enter their spawning stream to complete their life cycle due to the low flow conditions. As I mentioned, the monitoring carries on through all of the all of the different components of this of the science we're talking about here. Data and monitoring can inform the need to issue orders as drought impacts worsen or to rescind those orders as flow is restored. Provincial and federal fish biologists monitor fish migration and movements to ensure orders are timely and effective. In this next section, we'll talk a little bit about the comparison of the two temporary protection order options section 86 and 87 and 88. And then I'll finish up with a little bit about roles and responsibilities. So this is a specific example of weighing the benefits and impacts of the two regulatory options for temporary protection orders. This was a scenario based on a 60 day period of curtailment for the coaxial watershed on Vancouver Island. These numbers are using the water license information from 2019. The key point of this is that we're trying to find the best balance between restoring flows to protect the survival of a fish population and minimizing impacts to water users. So the exercise was that this analysis was done to compare the two different temporary protection order options in the coaxial watershed and what the impacts would be under both options. When we're trying to recover about 80 liters of second of water flow over a two month period back into the river so August and September is where this was considered. The values were provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food based on understanding of land use and crops, etc. Under the section 86 87 temporary protection order option, which uses fit for to achieve that 80 liters of second return of flow would have required required ordering 347 users to curtail their water use, as a lot of the more junior licenses are for smaller volumes and to get to the bigger volumes we'd have to the return of flow we'd have to work with down the priority list is quite far. It's important to note that this option doesn't consider water use purpose or any other values that's based solely on priority date. This means that stock watering purpose gets included as well as irrigation of nurseries tree crops etc. The estimated crop impact using this option was about $1.5 million of crop losses and about $5.5 million to livestock and milk production, a large part of that $5.5 million was purchasing and trucking water over that two month period. To achieve the same return of flow of 80 liters a second using a section 88 temporary protection order. The section 88 can be targeted and substantially reduce the number of people impacted, as well as the financial impact you can see on the screen there that instead of 347 users impacted. There were 40 users. And the, the estimated financial impact was about $500,000 worth of crop loss now understanding this still very significant for those are impacted. The needed stream flow while limiting those impacts. It's also worth noting that the folks that are impacted by a section 88 would also be included in the section 86 and 87 option. However, those folks would have only had to stop watering their forage crops, but if they also held a water license for livestock watering they would have been able to carry on that livestock watering. The section 88 were under the 86 and 87 they wouldn't have. So, I want to just move into a little bit about roles and responsibilities with a note that this is evolving as I said at the beginning the province is changing governance structures. And that's evolving and we'll talk, talk broadly about the roles and responsibilities on the slide. But there are many other bits to pieces to drought response. And at the regional level these are the regional staff that I've referred to throughout the presentation. They're doing things like identifying watersheds of concern. They're collecting monitoring data these are the folks with their feet in the streams. They're communicating day to day with water users. They're working with local governments and local First Nations. They're the ones that are putting together the requests for voluntary reductions, identifying the unauthorized users, issuing section 93 orders and then recommending temporary protection orders up to the provincial level. At the provincial level the responsibility is to develop the drought response plan and framework. There's a responsibility for communications and media management. Media engagement I should say. They're considering the recommendations of regional teams and issuing those orders. Things like declaration of significant water shortage getting that in front of the minister or lieutenant governor and council. Defining what the critical environmental flow protection orders are getting that in front of the minister like the comptroller of water rights. And then getting fish population protection orders in front of the minister. There's a third role and responsibility here and that's natural resource officers under the compliance and enforcement branch. Now these folks are conducting compliance inspections and taking enforcement actions including investigations. They may be delivering the section 8687 or 88 orders or section 93 orders to different water users depending on which options are are undertaken. I do want to note and this question has come up quite a bit. Natural resource officers do have the legal authority to enter on to private land and perform investigations. I do want to say that the natural resource officers are unarmed. They do wear bulletproof vests for their own protection. But they're not to be confused with police officers and they do not have the authority to make arrests. Now the ministry of agriculture and foods role is primarily to work with regional water teams on communication efforts provide agricultural perspective at regional and drought and provincial drought meetings. And to do those estimates of impacts to agriculture when temporary protection orders being considered. They'll go into that further with their portion of the presentation. With that, I would just like to say thank you for joining today and really appreciate your attention. Hopefully this was valuable and answered a lot of your questions. Thank you.