Tofino is teetering on a water crisis.
The streams on nearby Meares Island that supply the resort community with drinking water are still flowing and the reservoirs are full, but unprecedented drought conditions have the town on edge.
A packed town hall meeting Tuesday night was told that if the drought persists, more drastic measures would be on the table. A local state of emergency could be declared and would likely include suspension of some businesses, limiting tourism and tanker trucks bringing in water.
Mayor Dan Law opened the meeting by recognizing First Nations and protesters who defied court injunctions in the 1980s and stopped old-growth logging on Meares Island, where four creeks fill reservoirs and feed a sea-floor pipeline that supplies the town with water.
“We are subsisting on fog and dew and every night it’s feeding the creeks and our reservoirs,” Law said. “It’s a mature forest over there. Forty years ago, they refused to log that watershed, and thank God they did.”
The Tla-oqui-aht First Nation was instrumental in halting the logging on Meares, retaining the mosses among the old growth that hold moisture like a sponge and release it to the creeks even during dry periods.
That’s important, because Tofino is experiencing the driest months in recorded history — it last rained about three weeks ago, said Law. To put that in perspective, since May 1, Tofino has received 19 millimetres of rain in total. On average, cumulative rainfall for the period is 249 mm.
A drought so early in the summer pushed the community on July 10 to Stage 3 water restrictions, which prohibit all outdoor use of water, including outdoor showers and taps, pool or hot tub fill-ups and grass, landscape or food-plant watering.
The province, meanwhile, has declared all of Vancouver Island at Drought Level 5, the highest level.
Despite Highway 4 closures in June that significantly decreased visitor traffic, Tofino’s water consumption only dropped by 4.2% from the same month in 2022.
Now Tofino is calling on everyone in the resort community to conserve as much as they can to forestall a need to move to stricter measures.
Aaron Rodgers, director of infrastructure and public works for the district, said Stage 3 in Tofino is “akin to a tsunami siren. “The siren is going but we have some time to work on conservation to avoid an impact to our community,” he said. “We can’t control the weather or the creeks … the only thing we can control is use of water.”
The town has introduced a “20% challenge” asking residents, resort properties and businesses to reduce water usage with measures like alternate toilet flushes and cutting shower time in half. The goal is to hit a target of 1,700 cubic metres of water a day to get Tofino through to the rainy season in the fall.
Rodgers said typical demand is about 2,200 cubic metres a day.
Bylaw officers are going door-to-door to remind residents, resorts and short-term vacation rentals of the serious threat to the town’s water supply. The community has also encouraged crowd-sourcing ideas and some of the responses from local businesses have included moving to bottled water in restaurants, using paper napkins to save on laundry and reducing occupancy.
Tourism Tofino has also been asking resorts to inform incoming guests about the potential water crisis, rules around Stage 3 and the need to conserve.
Law said the district is monitoring water consumption of large commercial users — including fish farm giant Cermaq — and working with hotels to engage with guests and seasonal staff about conservation of Tofino’s “greatest but surprisingly limited natural assets.”
Cermaq is expected to close operations earlier than usual this summer.
A Cermaq representative at the town hall meeting said the fish plant has already cut water use in processing by adding meters in its operation and is looking at using salt water in its flushing systems by next year, which could result in a further 10% cut.
Town officials also said the fire department has new equipment enabling the use of salt water and is looking at ways to access saltwater to fight some fires, depending on the location.
Rapidly growing population
Tofino is one of the wettest places in Canada, historically receiving more than three metres of rain annually, but most of it falls over the winter and spills over the reservoir system.
The community has faced water shortages before. In August 2006, all tourism businesses were ordered shut down by the district after the shortage became critical. In response, resort owner Chris Lefevre paid $50,000 for a 10-day supply of water from Ucluelet.
Boosted by about a million visitors a year, most arriving in the summer months, Tofino’s population is also growing rapidly. Census data from 2021 shows the population has increased 28% to 2,217 since 2016 — the second highest rate of growth on the Island after Langford.
That’s put extra pressure on the town’s infrastructure, including water use.
Last year, Tofino council authorized staff to develop a water master plan for infrastructure improvements over the next two decades. Law said the plan will address summer population growth, changing climate and infrastructure renewal to the water system. That report is expected to be complete by the first quarter of next year.
But future developments are already considered with water supply and infrastructure in mind.
Law said Tofino is planning for 2% growth in developments, barring a severe drought, and water is “part of the conversation for every applicant. It’s very much top of mind and it will be acutely so going forward.”
The fragility of the system was evident last month when public works crews had to repair a leak on the submarine water pipeline connecting Tofino to its reservoirs on Meares Island, causing temporary restrictions.
Another leak was discovered in the pipeline to the Bay Street Water Treatment Facility, requiring a partial shutdown of the water system.
Stage 4 restrictions still haven’t been clearly defined, but if the reservoirs show diminishing supplies or there is a massive wildfire, Rodgers said, measures could include closing some businesses and resorts and limiting access to the town by visitors.
Rodgers said drinking water and fire suppression will be priorities.
He said the district has been in discussions with water haulers for two months about potentially supplying the reservoirs, noting it could take about 170 truckloads to meet the current demand.
“There are no silver bullets. All users must find ways to reduce water usage. We have enough now but it’s important to convey the message.”
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