Our Water

The Town of Ladysmith draws its water from two sources: Holland Lake and Stocking Lake.

It can take up to 12 hours for water from Holland Lake to reach the Town’s intake. In addition, it takes several days of monitoring and careful valve adjustments to fine-tune the flow—ensuring enough water for downstream ecosystems and meeting the water treatment plant’s 24-hour demand without excess overflow at the dam. Summer is when water demand is highest, rainfall is lowest, and lake levels decline the most.

The Town also utilizes the Arbutus Reservoir, which balances daily highs and lows in consumption and serves as the Town’s emergency fire volume reserve. The Arbutus Reservoir must always remain at or above 80% capacity.

Unfortunately, our ability to capture winter rainfall and snowmelt in our watersheds for summer use is limited by the current lake source capacity.

As a result, the Town is moving forward with a major expansion of the Holland Lake and Stocking Lake sources that will nearly double the storage capacity. The $15-million project is supported by $10.8 million in funding from senior levels of government. Once complete, the source expansion will help ensure a secure drinking water supply for Ladysmith, Stz’uminus First Nation, and the Diamond Improvement District for decades to come.

Conserving Our Water

Water is a very precious resource, and the Town is taking several measures to encourage citizens to reduce consumption, including:

  • Implementing water restrictions during the dry season
  • Installing water meters at all residences and businesses to help detect and repair leaks and monitor consumption
  • Distributing educational water-wise mail-outs to all households
  • Requiring low-flow toilets in all new construction and renovations
  • Installing low-flow toilets in all municipal facilities
  • Undertaking capital upgrades to the water supply and storage system
Emergency Water Issues?

In the event of an emergency involving water, sewer, or drainage, please call Infrastructure Services at 250-245-6445.