Dear editor,

I was pleased to read about the many people who turned out and spoke to their concerns about water use in the valley.

Water is one of our very precious gifts of the valley. I grew up there and didn’t know there was any such thing as bad water or water that didn’t taste good until I moved away. (Well I did know that you couldn’t drink swamp water, but we drank from flowing streams.) I also am aware of the melting, receding glaciers in a very real way. I see a huge change in both Robson Glacier and Columbia Glacier in the past 30 or 40 years I was shocked at how much the Robson Glacier had receded since I didn’t see it for about 25 years.

My concern about a water bottling plant is that the water will be taken away. When we “use” water for household use or hotel use or washing our cars or watering our lawns or gardens, it goes back into the ground and is available for watering the land again. When we “use” water for generating power it is immediately available for use again. If we take care to not pollute it with chemicals, we can be a part of the natural system. When there is water to nourish plants and trees, then the land holds the snow runoff and the rain. When we have water to keep plants green and growing there is less danger from forest fires. If water is bottled and hauled away - it is gone from the river system. I have seen places like that in Mexico and Arizona - dry river beds. There must have once been a river there and probably there is seasonal runoff but it doesn’t provide for many plants or gardens or household water. It does have it’s own kind of beauty but it is not what I would want for this valley.

Thank you to those who are speaking out and questioning how we impact the environment we live in. We not only impact the valley here but impact the whole length of the river system.

May we be respectful and careful and thankful in our use of the land and water so that our children and children’s children may also be blessed in this land.

Laurel McKirdy, former resident now in Prince George