Water Sustainability Act: Groundwater use licensing deadline fast approaching

On February 25, 2019, we issued an update concerning the end of the transition period for persons using groundwater without a licence under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA). In a later update, we noted that the BC government issued an order-in-council extending the end of the transition period to March 1, 2022.

What is happening?

The WSA provides for a transition period for persons currently using groundwater without a licence, which comes to an end on March 1, 2022. Most non-domestic users of groundwater in British Columbia should accordingly apply for a water licence before March 1, 2022, in order to lawfully continue to use and divert water from an aquifer and to preserve their dates of precedence for groundwater use.

Why does it matter?

A water licence specifies how much water a person can legally use and secures a person's access to that water.

Senior water licensees are given priority over junior licensees when it comes to exercising their water rights. Existing groundwater users who apply for a water licence before March 1, 2022, are eligible to have their date of first use of the groundwater as their date of precedence. However, a water user that waits until after March 1, 2022, to apply will be treated as a new applicant, and will thus be given a junior priority date based on the date of the water user's application.

Further, after March 1, 2022, every unlicensed non-domestic use of groundwater will constitute an offence under the WSA and may trigger fines of up to $200,000, administrative penalties (if enacted in the future), and orders to cease water use.

For more information, please see our February 2019 and March 2019 updates.

The authors wish to thank Mackenzie Hayden, articling student, for his help in preparing this legal update.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.