‘We are subsisting on fog and dew:’ Tofino faces a water crisis

Tofino is teetering on a water crisis.

The streams on nearby Meares Island that supply the resort community with drinking water are still flowing and the reservoirs are full, but the unprecedented drought has the town on edge.

A packed town hall meeting Tuesday night was told that if the drought persists, more drastic measures would be needed. A local state of emergency could be declared and would likely include suspension of some businesses, limiting tourism, and tanker trucks bringing in water.

Mayor Dan Law opened the meeting by recognizing First Nations and protesters who defied court injunctions in the 1980s and stopped old-growth logging on Meares Island, where four creeks fill reservoirs and feed a sea-floor pipeline that supplies the town with water.