The Sunshine Coast is facing a climate crisis. As droughts grow longer and more frequent, ensuring a secure and clean drinking water supply has never been more urgent. That’s why the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) is leading a campaign to protect the West Howe Sound watershed, a critical recharge area for two vital drinking water aquifers: Gibsons Aquifer #560 and the Landale-Hawkins Aquifer #552.
Together, these aquifers serve tens of thousands of Sunshine Coast residents. With climate change putting immense pressure on our freshwater systems, safeguarding these aquifers means safeguarding our communities.
The Threat: Logging and Resource Extraction
Despite their importance, these aquifers’ recharge zones—located mainly on Crown land—are currently unprotected and at risk from logging and other resource extraction. Logging activities in these sensitive areas increase the risk of sedimentation, landslides, and contamination, jeopardizing aquifer health and public water security. Yet with each new iteration of its operating plan, BC Timber Sales proposes timber sale licences in the mountain block recharge area.
This is a governance crisis as much as it is a crisis of nature. The Town of Gibsons and the Sunshine Coast Regional District have identified the need to rely more heavily on these aquifers to meet future water demands. Without legal protection, that future remains in doubt.
The Solution: Immediate Legislative Protection
The SCCA commissioned a legal report from the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre to explore solutions to address this threat. The report outlines a range of legislative tools and concludes that two legal mechanisms are best suited for immediate, interim protection:
- Part 13 of the Forest Act
This provision allows the province to designate a temporary protection area to suspend or restrict logging activities. Designations can last up to 10 years and have recently been used to defer old-growth logging and protect caribou habitat. - Section 7 of the Environment and Land Use Act
This tool allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make orders to prevent harmful activities like gravel mining or oil and gas development in sensitive areas. This provision has been used with the Forest Act to implement broad environmental safeguards.
By activating both tools together, the province can immediately halt new permits for logging and other destructive resource extraction across recharge areas in aquifers 560 and 552.
Longer-Term Protection
While interim protection is critical, the ultimate goal is to secure long-term conservation through a Water Sustainability Plan under the Water Sustainability Act. These solutions take longer to implement but offer lasting protection that can coexist with Indigenous rights and stewardship practices.
Indigenous Leadership and Reconciliation
The recharge areas of these aquifers lie within the traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). The SCCA supports Indigenous leadership in determining appropriate land protections and is committed to aligning this campaign with the Squamish Nation’s strategic vision of sustainable stewardship and shared decision-making.
What’s Next
The SCCA actively engages with local and provincial governments, Indigenous partners, and the public to advance these protections. We are calling on the Province of British Columbia to:
- Immediately designate the recharge areas under Part 13 of the Forest Act and s. 7 of the Environment and Land Use Act
- Work with First Nations and the local community to develop a Water Sustainability Plan.
Protecting the West Howe Sound watershed isn’t just about land—it’s about life. Clean, reliable drinking water is the foundation of public health, ecological resilience, and climate security. Together, we can ensure that the aquifers our communities depend on remain protected for generations to come.