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Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood open Season 2 of Nonpartisan Hacks: Pulse Edition with the question everyone in Oceanside was asking this summer: if we live in a rainforest, why are we under a watering ban?

Their guest is Scott Harrison, two-term Town of Qualicum Beach councillor and chair of the Arrowsmith Water Service, the joint venture of Qualicum Beach, Parksville and the Regional District of Nanaimo that owns and operates the Arrowsmith Dam.

Harrison explains how stages are set by the province based on flow in the Englishman River, not on how much water residents use, and that most of the water stored behind the dam is released for fish habitat. On whether growth is to blame, Scott offers a both-sides answer: "The problem is that both of them are right. And both of them are not quite right." The conversation also covers housing types and water use, a recovering Parksville aquifer, and what a possible super El Niño winter could mean.

Listen for:

• Why Parksville faces strict watering restrictions while Qualicum Beach stays at Stage 1

• How the province's operating rule ties restrictions to Englishman River flow, not water use

• What new LiDAR data revealed about the Mount Arrowsmith snowpack

• Why the Arrowsmith Dam spilled in early February, the earliest in its history

• How housing type shapes household water use

Nonpartisan Hacks is a Vancouver Island political podcast hosted by Joel Grenz and Sean Wood, featuring lively, independent conversations about local government, public policy and the issues affecting communities. Non-Partisan Hacks is part of The PULSE Podcast Community.

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