Can I dig a pond or a dugout on my BC property?

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Yes, but if any of its water comes from a stream or from groundwater seeping in, storing and using it needs a water licence or use approval, unless it's for household use. A dugout for stock water, irrigation or fire water, or a pond for the view, is a common plan for rural land. In BC what it needs depends mostly on where its water comes from: a creek or wetland, groundwater seeping in, or only rain and runoff. The dam holding it, the soil dug out and the fish downstream each have rules of their own. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. A natural pond is a stream: The Water Sustainability Act's stream includes a lake, pond, creek, spring or wetland, whether or not it usually holds water (s. 1). Digging out, deepening or damming a natural pond, or building a pond in a creek or wetland, is a change in and about a stream, made only under a change approval, the regulations' authorized changes or a licence (s. 11; see drainage). Storing and using its water needs an authorization too (s. 6 (1)). Water from a stream or the ground: No one may divert water from a stream or an aquifer, or use what they divert, without a water licence or use approval unless the regulations allow it (s. 6 (1)); diverting includes impounding (s. 1). The Province's dugout bulletin says an authorization is needed if any of the dugout's water is stream water or groundwater, seepage included, on private land as on Crown land, and that a dugout not fed by a stream and not lined with clay or another barrier is most likely taking in groundwater. Household use: Groundwater may be taken and stored for domestic purpose without a licence (s. 6 (4)), and unrecorded stream water too (s. 6 (3)). Domestic purpose is household use by the occupants of private dwellings on one parcel: drinking, food and sanitation, fire prevention, water for animals or poultry kept for household use or as pets, and a garden of up to 1,000 m² beside the house (s. 1). A dugout watering a herd, irrigating a hay field or filling a pond for looks goes past it (our reading). Rain and runoff only: Under the bulletin, a dugout that fills entirely from rain, snowmelt or runoff that hasn't reached a stream or soaked into the ground needs no authorization. Its signs: groundwater or stream water never recharges it, it is lined or dug in impermeable ground, it isn't built on or across a stream or wetland, the water doesn't reach it down a natural channel or channelled hollow, and the ground around it keeps water from soaking in. Getting an authorization: A licence is a long-term right to use the water; a use approval lasts up to 24 months (s. 10 (1)). Apply through FrontCounter BC, naming every source that fills the dugout. A licence covers only its own purposes: supplying water to anyone else, even for their household, needs a waterworks purpose (the bulletin). The dam: A barrier built to store water taken from a stream or an aquifer is a dam (Dam Safety Regulation s. 1). The regulation doesn't apply to one under 7.5 m high that holds 10,000 m³ or less, unless the Province orders it to because the dam is or may become hazardous (s. 2). The owner's manual, emergency plan and inspections apply from 2.5 m and over 30,000 m³, 1 m and over 1,000,000 m³, 7.5 m, or a consequence class of significant or higher (s. 7; see dams). Digging on ALR land: Constructing reservoirs is land development work a local government may not prohibit on ALR land where a farm use there needs it (ALR Use Regulation s. 6). Soil may be removed or fill placed without the Commission's leave for drainage, irrigation and livestock watering works for farm use up to 320 m³ per 16 ha a year (s. 35 (c)); more needs a notice of intent or an application (see fill and soil). A pond for looks isn't a farm use (our reading). The council and fish: A council or regional district soil bylaw can ask for a permit to remove soil or place fill (see fill and soil). Under the federal Fisheries Act no one may carry on work that harms fish habitat without an authorization (ss. 34.4, 35): a pond on or beside a fish-bearing creek, or an intake that takes its water, can do that, so ask Fisheries and Oceans Canada first. Buying a lot with a pond: A licence attached to the land passes with it on a sale, and the seller must give the Province written notice before completing (s. 25 (1), (2)). Ask the seller for the licence number and look it up in the Province's Water Licence Search; a dugout fed by a creek or groundwater with no licence is water used without authorization (our reading), which a buyer can be asked to fix. What it means for a buyer: Where the water comes from decides most of it, and the dry months say more about a pond than spring does. A report lists the creeks, lakes and wetlands mapped within 30 m and the fish recorded in them, the aquifer under the lot, the licensed springs and drinking-water intakes within 300 m, and the dams within 1 km.

Can I dig a pond or a dugout on my BC property?

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