The island

Letters dispute accuracy of proposed Hornby groundwater map

A Hornby letter asks trustees to pause a draft bylaw, while the Denman issue also prints excerpts from a groundwater report.

The Denman Firestarter · reporting 2025-05-15 · compiled 2026-10-01

Back issue. The Denman Firestarter did not exist on 2025-05-15. This edition was compiled on 2026-10-01 from the public record as it stood on 2025-05-15, and contains nothing dated after that day — no outcomes, no hindsight. It is a reconstruction of what was on the record at the time, not a document from the time. This edition.

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A letter printed in this week’s Grapevine asks the Hornby Island Local Trust Committee to pause proposed Bylaw No. 176 on May 16, saying its groundwater map relies on old information and should be updated before decisions are made.^[1]

The letter’s signer, John Grayson, wrote that Islands Trust Council maps issued in 2021 show that “Aquifer 1A,” marked on the draft bylaw map, does not exist. He also wrote that the newer maps are more precise and asked the committee to use updated groundwater mapping.^[1]

The same issue prints excerpts identified as coming from a 2021 Islands Trust Council-commissioned groundwater report, including a map titled “Groundwater Recharge Potential for Denman Island and Hornby Island.” The excerpts do not state that Aquifer 1A does not exist; that conclusion is the letter writer’s claim.^[1]

The Denman Local Trust Committee minutes provided for this report do not record a discussion of Hornby Draft Bylaw No. 176 or the groundwater-map dispute.^[2]

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