Dear Concerned Citizen:

As many of you are aware, I have recently appointed a receiver to work with the community to resolve the long-standing problem with the water quality in the Erickson improvement district. I wish to explain why this step was taken.

Erickson has been under a boil-water advisory - which is meant to be a short-term order - since 1992. During this period, the improvement district has had numerous opportunities to develop and implement a plan to supply water to residents that complies with the Safe Drinking Water Regulation of the provincial Health Act. The improvement district must have project plans in place in order to access provincial funding for this work.

There have been long-standing concerns that no significant progress was being made on putting a treatment system in place and, in November, I wrote to the Board of Trustees asking for such a plan by December 31. The board's plan was not sufficiently detailed with specifics on its long-term plan to address concerns about Erickson's drinking water.

For these reasons, I believed it necessary to put an experienced manager in place who can work with the community to see the project through to completion. In appointing a receiver to manage the improvement district, we have put someone in place who will effectively manage the water quality concern and ensure that the plan for the water system complies with provincial standards within a reasonable period of time.

To this end, the receiver, Dave Wilson, will be consulting with residents, improvement district officers, local governments and others, as required. Mr. Wilson is a veteran administrator with 45 years of experience in senior administrative positions with local governments around the province.

I take the medical health officer's concerns about Erickson's water quality very seriously. I wish to stress that the issue at hand is ensuring that a plan is in place to provide the people of Erickson with clean, safe drinking water. I will not presume to know how Mr. Wilson will work with the residents to achieve this outcome, but the Erickson residents will need to fully participate in the process. Our goal is the same - to have clean, safe drinking water in Erickson.

Yours truly,

Jim Doyle
Minister

From: Lonnie Lecerf[SMTP:peasant@kootenay.com]
Sent: January 12, 2001 2:10 PM
To: Doyle, Jim (Office) Cc: Evans, Corky (Office); Dosanjh, Ujjal (Office)
Subject: Erickson Water

Dear Mr. Doyle,

If you think that the people of Erickson after all that we have been through to defend our right to unadulterated water are going to lay down shaking in fear because you have put our improvement district into receivership then you have another thing coming.

Just to refresh your memory or perhaps you are not fully aware of the situation here in Erickson. The trustees of the improvement district did long ago capitulate. This is what inspired the people of Erickson to rise up. Water Action Group was formed and did blockade the entrance to the intake site. When the EID was ordered to seek an injunction against the blockade by the Medical Health Officer Dr. Andrew Larder they instructed their lawyer to do so. Water Action Group challenged the injunction in court and it was not granted.

There is a judicial review of Dr. Larder's actions in regard to Erickson still before the courts. It seems that the judge in this case wants to hear what we the people have to say about our water.

To say that the EID has done nothing to solve this impasse is nothing short of an outright lie. Numerous proposals have be made that would both satisfy the people of Erickson and meet with Safe Drinking Water Guidelines but these were met with an insistence on residual chlorine and financial roadblocks in the form of ridiculous infra-structural requirements. The EID and the two user groups have volumes of research on water treatment and have found that there are many alternatives to chlorination. The EID has put a UV pilot project in place to fully test the effectiveness of UV treatment in Erickson.

There is no one person who is going to be able to do a better job of satisfying the demands of the people of Erickson than what the EID has done. And believe me when I tell you that it is the people of Erickson who must be satisfied and not you or Dr. Larder or any other bureaucrat.

You are going to find that the people of Erickson are alot more aware of water quality than you or any of your bureaucrats including Dr. Larder. We resent being treated like mindless idiots who don't know what's best for themselves. We resent being treated like a 3rd world country and having our duly elected representatives being ousted and replaced by the State. You are going to find that rather than solve the problem or expedite a mutually acceptable solution for Erickson that your actions simply reaffirmed the distrust that the people of BC have for you and your government.

There will be no Chlorine in Erickson's water.

Lonnie Lecerf
Water Action Group
Erickson, BC