“Meager Creek Hot Springs Improvement & B.C. REG.289/72”

[Mike_Sato]

Documentation about Meager Creek Hot Springs’s improvement is public record and can be viewed at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts (MOTCA)’s Sea to Sky District office. However, due to numerous misleading or fabricated statements posted on the internet, many people are either unaware or misinformed about the improvement that occurred at Meager Creek HS post-1995. So in order to clarify some details, I have decided to write a brief history of Meager Creek’s improvement from 1995 to 2000.

The province of British Columbia requires that all communal pools open to the general public comply with B.C. REG.289/72 (Swimming pool, spray pool and wading pool regulations). This includes all pools in hotels, resorts, community centers, schools, and natural hot springs in BC.

According to B.C. REG.289/72, under “Application of regulation” (“Part 2 - Application and Approval”), it states:

“3 These regulations shall apply to all pools within the Province, except private residential pools, and to all auxiliary structures and equipment required for the use or operation of these pools.”

B.C. REG.289/72 requires that general public use pools (which includes spas) to re-circulate and disinfect pool water. To avoid the use of disinfectant and the requirement to re-circulate water, a hot spring must fall outside the regulatory definition of BC REG.289/72. If the pool is natural (not man-made) or if the pool is a private residential pool, B.C. REG.289/72 does not apply.

If the pool being built is not a private residential pool, it must be classified as being a ‘natural pool’ in order to avoid the use of disinfectants. Hot springs that Ministry of Health classifies as being ‘natural pools,’ are also called designated ‘bathing beaches.’ When Ministry of Health classifies a hot spring as being a ‘bathing beach’, it means that the hot spring is not considered to be a pool. Bathing in a ‘bathing beach’ is considered to be equivalent to bathing in a natural pond, lake, stream, sea or beach. A hot spring pool classified as a ‘bathing beach’ would not be regulated under B.C. REG.289/72. Therefore, it would not require disinfectants, a plan review or an operational permit.

However, it is difficult for an existing hot spring pool to be classified as a ‘natural pool’ by the Ministry of Health. The majority of hot spring pools in BC would be considered artificial pools by Ministry of Heath. The pools at Clear Creek Hot Springs, Halfway River Hot Springs, Skookumchuck Hot Springs and St. Leon Hot Springs would all be considered artificial. This is because the pools at these hot springs are created out of man-made materials such as fiberglass, wood, and concrete, etc. Even the natural looking pools at Sloquet Hot Springs and Pebble Creek Hot Springs would be considered artificial because they include artificial materials in their construction, such as blue turf, plastic sheeting, and concrete.

Fortunately, up until now, the above mentioned six hot springs and the hundreds of most primitive and wilderness hot spring pools in B.C. have not been regulated by B.C. REG.289/72. One reason is because wilderness hot springs are located in very remote locations and receive very few visitors. Another reason is because Ministry of Health does not have the resources to monitor all hot springs. Thus the many not quite “natural” hot springs were largely ignored by Ministry of Health as long as there were no accidents or bad user behavior to bring attention them.

Even if a pool was formed naturally over time, it does not automatically mean that Ministry of Health would consider it to be a ‘natural pool.’ Pools formed naturally are still required to meet minimum health requirements. In order to meet minimum health requirements, most wildness hot spring pools in BC will require at least some man-made improvements, such as a walkway around pool and a main drain. While some improvements are necessary, a delicate balance exists between what constitutes an artificial and natural pool under B.C. regulations. Depending on the type of improvement undertaken, a hot spring can easily become an artificial pool and fall under B.C. REG.289/72.

There are exceedingly few naturally formed hot spring pools that meet minimum health requirements and require no man-made improvements. Hence, hot spring pools that are designated ‘bathing beaches’ make up less than 1% of all commercial hot spring pools in North America. Out of over ninety eight hot springs in British Columbia, there are only five hot springs that do not fall within the regulatory definition of B.C. REG.289/72.

Four of them are Liard, Lussier, Hotspring Island (Queen Charlotte Island) and Hot Spring Cove (Tofino). These four hot springs do not need to comply with B.C. REG.289/72 as they were deemed to be ‘bathing beaches’ and Ministry of Health recognized the pools at these hot springs as being “natural pools” because they had little to no artificial elements, and there is enough water flow to constituted natural cleansing process.

The fifth one, Meager Creek Hot Spring (Meager Creek HS), differs from the other four hot springs that were designated as bathing beaches. Meager Creek HS was made exempt from B.C. REG.289/72 in order to be designated as a ‘bathing beach.’

Meager Creek HS was the only wilderness hot spring in which the Ministry of Health was forced to intervene due to user behaviour and sanitary conditions. After taking a water sample at Meager Creek HS, Coast Garibaldi Health discovered that the hot spring water contained high fecal coilform counts and arsenic levels. High fecal coliform counts indicated the presence of disease-causing organisms and, over time, exposure to arsenic can cause serious health problems. Thus, Coast Garibaldi Health decided that Meager Creek HS’s water quality and sanitary conditions were not suitable for public use and requested that the Ministry of Forest close down the site in 1995.

Coast Garibaldi Health also decided to classify the volunteer-built cedar pools at Meager Creek HS as “artificial pools” and imposed B.C. REG.289/72 upon Meager Creek HS in 1995. B.C. REG.289/72 requires that any artificial pool no matter how well constructed must be removed if a health permit was not applied for prior to its construction.

B.C. REG.289/72 requires plans and specifications prior to construction of an artificial pool. The following are the relevant sections from B.C. REG.289/72.

Plans and specifications

13 All plans and specifications for swimming pools shall be prepared by a competent professional engineer or architect registered to practise in British Columbia and shall bear the lawful seal of the designer. The registered professional engineer or architect responsible for preparing the plans shall certify the completed works in accordance with section 7.

Inspection during construction

14 Notwithstanding section 7, the medical health officer may inspect the works during construction.

Once Coast Garibaldi Health imposed B.C. REG.289/72, it became impossible for Meager Creek HS to operate as it did prior to Ministry of Health involvement. What Friends of Meager Creek society members and others critical of development at Meager Creek HS did not understand was that once Ministry of Health got involved, there were only two options left. Meager Creek HS either had to be improved according to the requirements set by B.C. REG.289/72 or the hot springs had to be closed to the public permanently.

From then on, Meager Creek HS would require professionally designed pool plans and specifications to be submitted to Coast Garibaldi Health for approval before any future pool construction could begin. Coast Garibaldi Health would only accept a pool design that was prepared by a provincially registered professional engineer or architect. Therefore, while Mike Sato of Sea to Sky Onsen, Inc.(SSOI) drafted the initial design of the natural rock-lined pool to be created at Meager Creek HS, the pool design needed to be revised by a professional pool engineer before submission to Coast Garibaldi Health.

As well, Coast Garibaldi Health stated that while the rock-lined pool design (draft) proposed by SSOI would look natural, they would in fact be man-made and thus were still “artificial pools”. For that reason, Coast Garibaldi Health stated it was impossible to consider the proposed rock-lined pools as natural pools unless it was also provided with a suitable process that ensured that Meager Creek HS’s pool water quality met Ministry of Health requirements.

After much negotiation and planning, a Pool Maintenance Procedures and Cleaning Process that satisfied Coast Garibaldi Health’s requirements was created for Meager Creek HS. The Pool Maintenance Procedures and Cleaning Process that was finally approved by Coast Garibaldi Health had many requirements.

One requirement was that the water flow through the pools at Meager Creek must have a pool water turnover rate of 1 hour or less. In other words, the pool must have sufficient flow so that the entire volume of pool water can be replaced within one hour.

Another issue that Coast Garibaldi Health wanted addressed was the method of supplying hot spring water to the pools. Previously at Meager Creek HS, hot spring water used in a pool upstream flowed into another pool downstream. In order to stop pool water contamination, Coast Garibaldi Health required that each pool must have its own source of hot spring water.

Fortunately, Meager Creek HS has the second largest water flow out of all hot springs in Canada. As well, when compared to most hot springs in Canada, Meager Creek HS has an extremely large number of hot spring sources. Several of these sources have sufficient flow to supply water to the pools within Coast Garibaldi Health’s required 1-hour turnover time. Aside from Meager Creek HS, exceedingly few hot springs in Canada have the flow and source numbers required to satisfy Coast Garibaldi Health’s one-source-to-one-pool and turnover time requirements.

Another important requirement of Coast Garibaldi Health was that Meager Creek HS’s pools needed to be drained and pressure washed every day or two to remove algae built up. This requirement was critical because Meager Creek HS has the fastest algae growth rate out of all hot springs in BC due to its mineral content.

SSOI initially wanted the natural rock-lined pools at Meager Creek HS to have gravel bottoms, similar to pools at Lussier Hot Springs. However, pool engineer John Rockingham insisted that due to the pool sizes and the rapid algae growth rate, it would be difficult and time-consuming to clean the pools at Meager Creek HS using only a brush, if bottoms were gravel. Also, a pressure washer could not be used if there was gravel.

Skookumchuck HS does not have the same mineral content as Meager Creek HS and its algae build up rates are not as fast. Skookumchuck HS pools can be cleaned easily with a brush. This is because Skookumchuck HS’s largest pool is only about 50 square feet.

Although Meager Creek HS’s main pool (waterfall pool) is much larger, at 800 square feet, in order to combat the rapid algae growth rate, the pools at Meager Creek need to be scrubbed clean frequently. Cleaning the pools using only a brush was considered too time intensive and impractical at Meager Creek. It would take two caretakers a full day to clean all three pools by brush.

John Rockingham recommended that a pressure washer be used at Meager Creek in order to decrease cleaning time. However, it would be impossible to clean the pools using a pressure washer if the pool bottoms were made of gravel. Using a pressure washer on gravel bottom pools would cause algae and other contaminants to get mixed in with the sand and gravel. So John Rockingham stated that for a pressure washer to work, and the pool bottoms would have to be made of mortar. John Rockingham and the Regional Public Health Engineer at the Ministry of Health both agreed that a mortar bottom was necessary to ensure public safety.

In September 1998, after three years of negotiations, Coast Garibaldi Health stated that if Merger Creek HS’s pools were made using local natural materials, namely rocks that blended in with the natural landscape and if they complied with minimum health requirements, there was a possibility that the pools could be considered “natural pools.”

Construction of the pools had to be carried out by manual labour because of their eco-sensitive location. The construction of the main pool (waterfall pool) began in mid-October 1998 and was completed in late November 1998. The bench pool and creek-side pool were constructed the following year, in June 1999.

Moving rocks weighing more than 4 tons was impossible using only manual labour. As well, natural rocks are not uniform in size. Thus the pool shapes began to differ slightly from the original pool designs submitted to Coast Garibaldi Health. This became an issue later with Coast Garibaldi Health authorities after the pool construction was completed in June 1999. In order to resolve this issue, a joint site inspection of the pools was conducted by Coast Garibaldi Health, Ministry of Forest and Ministry of Environment officers in July 1999.

After conducting the site inspection, Coast Garibaldi Health authorities were satisfied with the quality of the three completed rock-lined pools. Thus Coast Garibaldi Health supported Meager Creek HS’s designation as a bathing beach and this allowed Meager Creek HS to apply for an Order-in-Council for an exemption from B.C. REG.289/72. Eight consultants were involved and it took four years of negotiations with Coast Garibaldi Health to get to this stage. In August 1999, Meager Creek HS became the only hot spring that has successfully applied for and been granted full exemption from the public swimming pool regulation. Meager Creek HS was officially reopened to the public again in May 2000, five years after it had been closed.

Meager Creek HS was the most popular hot spring in the Lower Mainland. Due to its prolonged closure, the Coast Garibaldi Health authorities, the BC Ministry of Forest Recreation officer, the pool engineer John Rockingham and SSOI, all agreed on the importance of reopening Meager Creek HS to the public as soon as possible. For this reason, all parties made a lot of concessions in order to speed up Meager Creek HS’s reopening. I believe, therefore, that the method for improving this hot spring’s accessibility to the public cannot be applied to other hot springs in British Columbia.


Mike Sato

[Big Ian]

Thanks again Mike. Another great example of the exhaustive amount of work put into one of our favourite places.

[Kim_S]

Mike, thanks again for your continuing submissions about places important to all of us. I met a gentlemen recently at Five Palms Hot Springs who was a regular at Meager and he appreciated all the work that's gone into it.

[mdskibum]

Thanks Mike for all your efforts.
Meager Creek HS is near the top of my list of places to visit some day.
I've stayed in Pemberton but haven't tried the long drive there on gravel roads yet.

[Bulldozer]

Hey Mike, anyone,
Any word on the road conditions going up to Meager? Has work started yet on the landslide? Is Pebble accessible yet?

[Mike_Sato]

Tom,

I haven't heard from the Ministry of Tourism yet regarding the road improvements. I would estimate that they will begin sometime in late May. A lot of work needs to be done, so I would assume that the Meager Creek HS will at the earliest open at the end of June. I will let you know if I hear anything from the Ministry of Tourism.

I have no information regarding the Pebble Creek HS at the moment. From past experience, there is always an avalanche around the 41km marked area. The snow there usually remains until early May. This year, it did not snow much, so I am not sure. But once that clears, it should be possible to reach the Pebble Creek HS.

Mike Sato

[EvanC]

Anyone have any info re: the Meager creek road? I'm discouraged by the MOF site status:

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/dsq/Engineerin ... mation.htm

Meager Creek FSR is closed indefinitely due to large debris flow event at Capricorn Creek ** no anticipated repair date **