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Home › About us › Climate leadership › Environmental responsibility › Water Use Plans › Lower Mainland › Wahleach

Wahleach Water Use Plan

The Water Use Plan (WUP) for the Wahleach facility was completed in 2002 and was developed through a multi-year consultative process.

  • Project initiated September 2000 and completed October 2002.
  • Water Use Plan [PDF, 2.2 MB] accepted by the Comptroller of Water Rights in December 2004.
  • Executive summary [PDF, 23 KB] of Consultative Committee Report provides an overview of the water use planning process and outcomes.
  • Consultative Committee Report [PDF, 5.4 MB] and draft Water Use Plan submitted to the Comptroller of Water Rights in December 2003.
  • Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) issued a Fisheries Act Authorization (FAA) for Wahleach, with an expiry date tied to the review of the Order.

The final step is to review how things are going through a Water Use Plan Order Review (WUPOR), which was done concurrently with a review of the FAA.

Learn more about why we have Water Use Plans and the Order Review process.

The outcomes of the review are an application for WUP Order amendment under the Water Sustainability Act and an application to amend the FAA under the Fisheries Act.

What's new?

In 2022, an Order Review Advisory Committee (ORAC) with representatives from First Nations, regulators, and BC Hydro was formed to support the Wahleach WUPOR. Local government and key stakeholders chose not to participate in the ORAC, but to attend virtual meetings and email updates.

Since then, the ORAC has been meeting every few months to review the implementation of the WUP Order and FAA, identify issues related to facility operation, discuss whether measures could be made to address the identified issues, and develop a set of recommendations to inform BC Hydro's applications to the Comptroller of Water Rights and DFO.

In June 2025, the ORAC reached consensus on a set of recommendations for operational changes, monitoring, and mitigation. Refer to the 2025 ORAC report below.

What's next?

In March 2026, we plan to submit an Order Amendment Application to the Comptroller of Water Rights, and a Fisheries Act Authorization amendment to the DFO in April 2026.

Water Use Plan Order and Order Review

Annual Reports

 

Projects Studies Terms of Reference
WAHMON-1 Lower Jones Creek Fish Productivity Index
WAHMON-2 Channel Stability Assessment
 
WAHMON-3 Herrling Island Sidechannel Chum Spawning Success Monitoring
WAHWORKS-1 Boulder Creek Flow Bypass Facility Rehabilitation
WAHWORKS-2 Wahleach Reservoir Fertilization Program
WAHWORKS-3 Lower Wahleach Creek Channel Enhancement Project