City of New Westminster is 10th Metro Vancouver municipality to join Water Balance Model community
Abbotsford – The Inter-Governmental Partnership (IGP) is pleased to welcome the City of New Westminster as the newest member of the Water Balance Model community of users. “New Westminster is the 10th Metro Vancouver municipality to join the Inter-Governmental Partnership,” announced Ted van der Gulik (BC Ministry of Agriculture & Lands), IGP Chair.
Doing Business Differently in BC
The IGP comprises three BC Ministries (Agriculture & Lands, Environment, and Community Development), numerous local governments in four regions of BC, 
three federal agencies, and is now inter-provincial in scope. In addition, the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia has been a major funder and collaborator.
“We believe that the expanding membership of the IGP reflects the groundswell of support among local governments for doing business differently….so that together we can achieve the Living Water Smart vision for creating liveable communities and protecting stream health,” continued Ted van der Gulik.
The IGP also announced that John McMahon, the City of New Westminster's Utilities Engineer, will join the technical steering committee that provides oversight for model evolution. “John McMahon has relevant experience that we believe will enable him to make a significant contribution in enhancing the capabilities of the Water Balance Model,” stated Ted van der Gulik.
“John was a member of the ad hoc Users Focus Group that we convened in July 2008,” added Ted van der Gulik. “John and others generated a long-list of suggestions to improve the user experience. These have now been implemented.”
About John McMahon
John McMahon moved to BC in 2004 and in addition to spearheading the development of an asset management program he also manages the utilities, drainage and environmental issues for the City of New Westminster.
After spending a decade in the consulting industry completing environmental water management projects both in Ontario and around the world, John joined the City of Brampton in 2001 as the city's Environmental Engineer responsible for among other things, all rainwater/stormwater management related issues.
He has worked extensively with many stakeholders both in BC and Ontario including various federal and provincial agencies, regional and local municipalities, conservation authorities, consultants, and the development industry.
“We anticipate that John's perspective from sitting on both sides of the table, as well as his experience with the 'details' needed to implement watershed management, will help guide the future development of the WBM,” noted Ted van der Gulik.
“The ongoing development of the Water Balance Model is helping to fill a long standing gap in the development of watershed management strategies,” observed John McMahon. “By incorporating the more detailed QUALHYMO hydrologic model into the WBM, a 'nice' planning tool is being transformed into a more 'effective' instrument that can be used at both a watershed scale and during functional design.”
About Living Water Smart
Released in June 2008, Living Water Smart is the provincial government's vision and plan to keep British Columbia's water healthy and secure for the future. An over-arching goal is to encourage land and water managers and users to do business differently.
By 2012, the Province's expectation is that all land and water managers will know what makes a stream healthy, and therefore be able to help land and water users factor in new approaches to securing stream health and the full range of stream benefits.
The web-based Water Balance Model is one of the tools that will enable local governments and the development community to do business differently.
What is the Water Balance Model?
The new “Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO” is unique, bridges engineering and planning, links development sites to the stream and watershed, and enables local governments to establish science-based runoff performance targets. To learn more, click on the following link to an article in the April 2008 issue of Runoff: Create Liveable Communities and Protect Stream Health: Water Balance Model powered by QUALHYMO integrates the site with the watershed and the stream.
Posted January 2009