Leech is currently not connected to our water supply. Indeed, it's questionable if it can ever be connected due to the turbidity of the Leech River during freshet.
Taken into account, but not really groked by the CRD Water folks in the lead up to the CRD purchase of the Timberwest lands, was the fact that the Leech River is an utterly wild river ... one that during freshet is simply out of control, and quite amazing to see. It can knock down trees and move car sized boulders ... it's not really what CRD water folks look for when they look for drinking water sources.
It's highly likely that, long before tapping the Leech River system, the CRD Water folks will tap the very, very deep North end of the Sooke Reservoir (which is currently much, much deeper than can flow to the South end of Sooke Lake), for future water needs.
It's likely that they'll be leaving the Leech River out of the mix for the foreseeable future.
It's my understanding (not guaranteed to be 100% correct) that the Saddle Dam is designed to prevent the mixing of Sooke and Deception waters, but that Sooke Lake still pumps (or gravity flows) water into Deception (one way) in order to keep its capability up to to providing the appropriate seasonal flow to the Sooke River.
The Deception has a few small creeks flowing into it, but to my knowledge there isn't sufficient flow into Deception to keep it as plumped up as it normally is without topping up from the Sooke Lake/Council Lake system.
Regardless, our CRD water is some the purest natural drinking water in the world, and with the exception of those times we switch to the Goldstream system for flushing and inspection of the Kapoor tunnel ... our water is indeed some of the (if not the) purest natural large population drinking water in the world.
Edited by Spy Black, 30 October 2021 - 09:29 PM.