Cowichan Bay Village .com

Today’s rant in the press  a common Iannidinardo tactic.

Once again, Lori Iannidinardo, Director for Area D, Cowichan Bay does to the residents of Cowichan Bay Village, what she claims we are constantly doing to Cowichan Bay itself.

Complaints from her in the Cowichan Valley Citizen this morning have us all looking a pack of fools. Fools for expecting that we could trust her to take part in rational discussion about the issues we face with regard to our sewage treatment, or lack thereof.

Lori stood there at the Thursday meeting, looked us all square in the face, said what she said, appeared to be receptive and co-operative knowing all the while that this article would appear in the morning paper.

We were there in good faith, our area director was decidedly not. Her rant in this morning’s paper proves it.

http://www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com/float-home-rules-causing-tension-1.640252

From this morning’s Cowichan Valley Citizen:

“The float home owners are all upset because we’re putting in zoning and regulations,”Iannidinardoo said Tuesday afternoon. “They’ve planned their own meeting about that.”

No, we are not upset. We are deeply concerned however, that due to mere politics there are difficulties with the zoning as applied to the marinas where we live. We are deeply concerned that a lack of political will might destroy our community and way of life.

“First of all they [float homes] are not allowed there but we left them there because we are re-doing our zoning with our OCP. The community has said to us that a certain number of float homes brought character to the Bay.”

Float homes are “not allowed in the bay” only because of a bylaw set in place by unthinking politicians back in 1987. The default condition for BC waters, is that float homes and liveaboard vessels are permitted, unless banned by local bylaw. It’s politics, pure and simple.

Had Cowichan Bay embraced those who live on the water back then, when sewer hookups weren’t nearly the problem they are today, all might have been very different. Instead, the bylaw and plenty of others in the Bay related to business zoning, (the bakery is still zoned for fish processing, as is the cheese shop deli.) encroachment on the highway that runs through the village, parking and on and on were and still are not enforced. And so, when float home dwellers were invited to moor by marina owners they happily did so, unaware of the trouble to come. Now we have built a community which we intend to preserve.

What you seem to willfully ignore, is that this was all done more or less in good faith. Certainly from the point of view of the float home owners and liveaboards. My float home, all 200 square feet of it, has been here, lived in for more than 15 years. Before that it was a bait and tackle shop serving local sports fishermen.

“We told the marina owners not to put any more float homes in while we worked through the process of the OCP. Now, we’re doing the zoning and they got all excited when they saw the draft zoning bylaw on this. They are furious. There [was] a big meeting Sept. 25 and we are having our open house Thursday at 7 p.m. at Bench School on the zoning. I am really surprised at the anger and the amount of stuff that’s coming through right now that we are putting in these regulations,”

We are furious? No. We are deeply concerned. You are surprised? Then you are completely out of touch with a significant portion of those who live in the area covered by your directorate. We refuse to see our vibrant little community broken up merely for political reasons. We are determined to co-operate and strive to move towards reasonable solutions to the problems we face.

And finally, the best for last:

“Their effluent goes directly to the ocean now. Would they want the effluent from our houses going into the Bay? I don’t think so. Those float homes need to be regulated and hooked up to the proper sewer system and they are not at the moment. We’re asking that there be only a certain amount of float homes and they all have to be hooked up appropriately. This is what they’re mad about,” she said.

“And, of course, there is also the problem of the liveaboards that are pooping in the Bay. There needs to be a regulation and the proper facilities. They add to the pollution in the Bay as well.”

Nature’s Head in Position

Lori, you are either willfully or unfortunately ignorant of a situation that’s right in your own back yard. The effluent of my float home does decidedly NOT go into the ocean. It goes into my composting toilet. Once the material has composted, it then goes  into a biodegradable plastic garbage bag and at a rate of about one bag every three months, into the dumpster off to the landfill. I don’t know what the “regulations” are here in Canada regarding this manner of waste disposal, but in the United States, where the attitudes are by far more progressive with regard to float homes and a whole host of other things we seem not able to come to grips with here, it’s perfectly legal and proper.

I’m doing the very best I can to protect the waters of Cowichan Bay, and I’ve spent over $1000 to do so. All I put into the Bay at present, and this is bad enough so far as I’m concerned, is water associated with cooking, doing my dishes and from my shower. We use biodegradable soaps, avoid detergents and use no bleach. Many of my neighbors, both in float homes and on boats have done likewise. Holding tanks of vessels are used, as are the pump out stations. Many residents do their part by using facilities on land, for both toilet and showering as provided by marina owners.
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What we get “mad” about, Lori is being stabbed in the back via the media the moment we sit down in good faith to discuss solutions to a problem that’s been around as long as this community has been here. It predates almost every single resident currently on the water and most certainly predates each of the float homes in the Bay.

There was polite discussion at the meetings we held. There was polite discussion at the community meeting held at Bench School Thursday evening.

The meeting you referred to when you said “They’ve planned their own meeting about that.” was held as a courtesy to everyone else who lives in Cowichan Bay, Area D. We invited Ann Kjerulf, senior planner, Brian Dennison, manager of engineering and Emily Doyle Yamagucci environmental technologist to the Maritime Center on Wednesday evening in order to discuss issues surrounding zoning, sewer hookup, water quality and related issues, so that we would not monopolize the meeting held Thursday, a meeting where all Area D citizens were to have a chance to listen to plans, voice concerns and ask questions.

Now, here you are once more in the press, vilifying us with comments like “And, of course, there is also the problem of the liveaboards that are pooping in the Bay.” We are seeing to it that  there is less and less of that. You however are shoveling as fast as you can, trying to ensure confrontation, breeding the stink of mistrust and poisoning the entire discussion by sounding off to a gullible press.

You, Lori are making yourself one of the greatest problems we face, yet face you we most certainly will, and we plan to prevail.

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