{"id":3169,"date":"2015-12-30T15:49:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T23:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/?p=3113"},"modified":"2017-07-14T13:30:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T20:30:30","slug":"blog-post-18-what-happens-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/2015\/12\/30\/blog-post-18-what-happens-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #18 \u2013 What Happens Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The provincial government intends to bring the <a href=\"http:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/\"><em>Water Sustainability Act<\/em><\/a> (WSA) into force in early 2016, along with a set of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bclaws.ca\/civix\/document\/id\/complete\/statreg\/36_2016\">new and updated regulations<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.bc.ca\/stories\/fee-changes-to-ensure-long-term-protection-of-bc-water\"><u>new fees and rental rates<\/u><\/a> announced in February 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Once the WSA is in effect, those who use groundwater for non-domestic purposes (e.g., irrigation, municipal water supply, mining, water bottling) will need to apply for a water licence. Surface water and groundwater users will also be subject to the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gov.bc.ca\/stories\/fee-changes-to-ensure-long-term-protection-of-bc-water\"><u>new fees and rentals<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Homeowners with wells (i.e., \u201cdomestic users\u201d) will be exempt from licensing and fees. Domestic purpose is defined in Section 2 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leg.bc.ca\/Pages\/BCLASS-Legacy.aspx#%2Fcontent%2Flegacy%2Fweb%2F40th2nd%2F3rd_read%2Fgov18-3.htm\"><em><u>Water Sustainability Act<\/u><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When applying for a licence, applicants will be asked to provide evidence of their date of first use for the consideration of the statutory decision maker. Potential sources of evidence include: a well log or well construction report; a construction or operating permit; a certificate of public convenience and necessity; a subdivision approval; or other evidence that will demonstrate the construction of works or use of the groundwater. The <a href=\"http:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/app\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2016\/02\/LicensingGroundwaterUse-Web-Copy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><u>Licensing Groundwater Use policy paper<\/u><\/a> lists other information that applicants would be asked to provide, including the purpose and quantity of the water use.<\/p>\n<p>More information will be specified in a proposed new Water Sustainability Regulation, to be brought into effect along with the WSA.\u00a0 When the WSA comes into force in early 2016, specific direction on how to apply for a groundwater licence will be available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frontcounterbc.gov.bc.ca\/index.html\"><u>FrontCounter BC<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Living Water Smart Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The provincial government intends to bring the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) into force in early 2016, along with a set of new and updated regulations and the new fees and rental rates announced in February 2015. Once the WSA is in effect, those who use groundwater for non-domestic purposes (e.g., irrigation, municipal water supply, mining, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/2015\/12\/30\/blog-post-18-what-happens-next\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8,74,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-engagement","category-regulations","category-water-laws"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3702,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169\/revisions\/3702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/watersustainabilityact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}