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In addition to the fish, the river supplies the municipality of Duncan with water for drinking and sewage systems, the Cowichan Tribes through whose lands it flows and the Catalyst pulp mill at Crofton which relies on the river to supply an industry that is the region’s biggest employer.

But river flows this spring have already fallen to the lowest level at the earliest time in the season since the weir was built almost 60 years ago to hold back enough water to supply the pulp mill during dry summer months.

Even with recent rain, the river is now discharging only 4.5 cubic metres per second reports retired river guide Joe Saysell.

If the flow dwindles to 4.3 cubic metres per second the mill would have to shut down, affecting about 600 local jobs directly but also another 5,500 jobs elsewhere in B.C., the $20 million in annual tax revenue and the $1 billion a year it contributes to the provincial economy.

And since the entire regional sewer system relies on water from the river, it, too, is at risk — not an appetizing prospect for householders.

Duncan discharges fully treated municipal sewage into the lower river. In 2014, as water flows diminished, public health authorities closed the Cowichan to the anglers, swimmers, kayakers and tubers who like to drift its tranquil lower reaches because bacterial counts spiked to levels the local medical health officer said he’d never seen before.

It’s not as though any of this is a shocking discovery. Vancouver Island is experiencing what the province designates a Level 3 drought for the second year in a row, prompting the Cowichan Regional district to post warnings that the “new normal” for the region is going to be water use restrictions.