Water Wise or Short-Sighted?

The Long-Term Cost of Abandoning Local Wells

As advocates of Strong Towns, we believe in building communities that are financially resilient, locally grounded, and strategically adaptable. The Township of Langley's decision to permanently decommission eight municipal wells, as indicated in the 2024 Annual Water Quality Report (i.e., Fort Langley Wells 1 & 2, Willoughby Well 1, Brookswood Wells 7, 9, 10, and Murrayville Wells 1 & 2), falls short on all counts.

Marketed as a water-quality and groundwater conservation measure, this decision introduces significant long-term liabilities, erodes infrastructure redundancy, and deepens reliance on regional systems over which the Township has limited influence.

What Decommissioning Really Means

Decommissioned well in Fort Langley. Photo Credit: Fraser Valley Current

It's important to first make sure we have a shared understanding of what decommissioning means. There is a common misconception that "decommissioning" simply means capping a well. Under B.C.'s Groundwater Protection Regulation, decommissioning entails permanently sealing and disabling the well to prevent contamination of the aquifer. Once this step is taken, reactivation is not legally or technically feasible without a full rebuild.

This effectively removes a functioning piece of Township infrastructure, along with the community's ability to respond effectively to emergencies, population growth, and emerging environmental risks.

The Financial Impacts of Decommissioning Wells

Permanently abandoning aging wells adds immediate pressure to the Township's operating budget. That pressure could possibly be offset (at least partially) by reduced capital costs needed for well upgrades and replacements. However, a deeper look reveals significant future liabilities that don't appear to have been adequately considered when deciding to solely rely on Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD) water.

The numbers tell a stark story. Local groundwater is substantially cheaper than purchasing water from the GVWD. The Township of Langley's 2009 Water Management Plan estimated groundwater to be 3 times more cost effective than GVWD water, saving the Township over $2M per year at the time. More recently, a 2023 report (23-157) authored by the Township's engineering department informed Mayor and Council that the impact of decommissioning six of the eight wells and purchasing GVWD water would increase operating budget pressures by approximately $4.1M annually (using 2023 GVWD rates).

Township staff compare current well operating costs vs purchasing water from GVWD (Excerpt from Report 23-157).

But the financial picture gets worse when you consider the trajectory. GVWD rates are projected to increase significantly—the same report (23-157) mentions that GVWD water rates were expected to increase by a projected 59% between 2023 and 2027. This means our $4.1M annual cost increase is just the starting point.

The Township's limited influence through GVWD compounds these concerns. The Township only has seven votes on the GVWD board, leaving it subject to decisions made by larger municipalities—the City of Surrey, for example, has 29 votes. When you're paying the bills but can't meaningfully influence the decisions, you're in a vulnerable position.

History offers a cautionary precedent that should give us pause. The regional North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project saw costs escalate from $700M to $3.86B due to governance failures, with all member municipalities bearing the burden. While this was a different type of infrastructure, it illustrates the financial risks of regional dependency without adequate local control.

These patterns echo Strong Towns' warnings against dependency on large-scale infrastructure without local ownership or financial flexibility. It's not to say we shouldn't buy any GVWD water, but have we fully considered what it means to be without a decentralized back-up system?

Acknowledging Issues, Overlooking Alternatives

The decision to decommission these wells was prompted in part by community frustration over water quality—specifically discoloration, odour, and corroded plumbing fixtures. The Township acknowledged that some wells, particularly older systems, had elevated manganese and iron levels, along with lower pH levels that can accelerate corrosion. While these issues are valid and warranted concern, they were aesthetic and operational in nature, not health threats, and they were solvable.

Tap water pictures posted by Murrayville resident, Randy Hayward on Facebook.

Rather than exploring modular, scalable treatment upgrades or maintaining the wells in a minimally-active but restorable state, the Township chose to eliminate the wells altogether. This one-time response addressed near-term concerns but sacrificed long-term flexibility and emergency preparedness.

Loss of Redundancy and Climate Risk

One of the gravest concerns with this decision is the loss of resilience in our water system. A letter from Fraser Health dated November 29, 2022, urged the Township to keep Fort Langley Well 2 operational as a backup during emergencies, citing the GVWD pipeline's seismic vulnerability:

"In times of emergency… this well will provide a safe alternative water supply for domestic and/or sanitation purposes."

Despite this, Council proceeded—cutting off a key option in case of pipeline failure, natural disaster, or surface-source contamination. For example, if a major earthquake were to disrupt the GVWD supply, which experts agree is a matter of when, not if, several Township neighbourhoods would be left without a functioning local water source. Re-drilling would take months. In the interim, water would need to be trucked in to tens of thousands of residents at enormous cost and logistical complexity.

The GVWD system draws primarily from river-fed sources that are increasingly vulnerable to climate-related threats such as drought, wildfire smoke, turbidity, and algal blooms. In contrast, groundwater is naturally filtered and more stable in both quality and availability. Losing access to municipal wells strips the Township of a vital strategic fallback in times of crisis.

A Missed Opportunity for Transparency and Resilience

As discussed in a January 10, 2023, Fraser Valley Current article, the Township's process lacked transparency and public input. No detailed analysis was released publicly comparing the cost of additional water treatment capabilities versus Metro Vancouver dependency—leaving residents unable to evaluate whether the Township was making the right trade-offs.

Even more concerning, Fraser Health's recommendations to retain backup capacity were not included in the relevant Council meeting package and were subsequently overruled. When the provincial health authority specifically advises keeping emergency backup capacity, and that advice doesn't even make it into the public discussion, something has gone wrong with the decision-making process.

Perhaps most troubling of all, emergency preparedness implications were not meaningfully addressed in an open Council session. For a decision with such significant resilience implications, the lack of public discussion about "what happens when the big one hits" represents a fundamental failure of municipal governance.

Strong Towns holds that municipal governance should be rooted in transparency, community trust, and incremental problem-solving—not reactive decisions that trade short-term peace of mind for long-term vulnerability.

Precedents from Other Municipalities

Groundwater remains a standby water source for numerous communities across B.C., and their approaches offer instructive examples for what Langley could have done differently.

Delta maintains three wells near Watershed Park. Photo Credit: Delta Optimist

Take the City of Delta, which purchases GVWD water but maintains three groundwater wells in North Delta's Watershed Park. These wells contribute to the municipal supply and serve as a designated emergency backup source. Delta isn't stopping there—the City is also exploring the development of additional backup wells in both Tsawwassen and North Delta to enhance resilience. They recognize that redundancy isn't just good engineering—it's good governance.

The City of Abbotsford takes a different but equally thoughtful approach. They participate in a regional water system with the City of Mission, but they haven't put all their eggs in one basket. The regional system has 3 water sources: Norrish Creek, Cannell Lake, and 15 groundwater wells. The groundwater wells provide about 5% of the annual system supply and generally only operate during peak consumption periods and during an emergency, like when a surface water source is offline. This is exactly the kind of strategic backup system that Langley has now abandoned.

Even Maple Ridge, which also purchases GVWD water, maintains five backup wells. The pattern is clear: successful municipalities understand that water security requires options.

These municipalities demonstrate that incremental improvements and diversified water portfolios are both feasible and effective. Langley could have followed suit, especially given its geographic exposure to seismic hazards, but chose not to.

Conclusion

Decommissioning local wells reduces the Township's financial flexibility and resilience at a time when both are desperately needed.

To realign with Strong Towns principles, Township leadership would need to take a comprehensive approach that begins with damage control and moves toward strategic recovery. The first step is to refrain from decommissioning any more wells—specifically the Acadia or Aldergrove wells. Every well we eliminate now makes our position more precarious.

Next, the Township should develop a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework to evaluate future water infrastructure decisions based on cost, resilience, environmental impact, and operational control. This kind of systematic approach would prevent the reactive decision-making that got us into this situation.

With that framework in place, the Township should conduct genuine public engagement after applying the MCDA framework to a scenario involving re-establishing groundwater access in Fort Langley, Willoughby, Murrayville and Brookswood. The community deserves to understand the real costs and benefits of our current path versus alternatives.

Depending on the results of the MCDA and public engagement, the Township should conduct a feasibility study similar to the one currently being undertaken by the City of Delta, to identify appropriate sites for re-establishing groundwater access to every Township neighborhood. This isn't about undoing every decision that's been made—it's about creating options for the future.

Finally, the Township should update and publish the Township's Water Emergency Response Plan, ensuring consideration of climate change impacts and seismic vulnerabilities. If we're truly committed to relying primarily on GVWD water, we need to be honest about what that means for emergency preparedness and show residents how we'll respond when the inevitable happens.

Strong Towns advocates for financial resilience, local grounding, and strategic adaptability. The Township of Langley would do well to consider these principles when deciding on the future of our drinking water.

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Strong Towns Langley is a community group dedicated to making Langley, British Columbia a better place. We advocate for incremental development, sustainable transportation solutions, housing accessibility, public spaces, and responsible growth strategies. Our group is part of the larger Strong Towns movement, focusing on creating financially resilient and people-oriented communities.

To learn more visit https://strongtownslangley.org