Ranchers in British Columbia are often surprised when the purpose on their groundwater licence application reads “industrial.” There’s no factory on the place. It’s cattle.
It isn’t an error. Under the Water Sustainability Act, every water use falls under a purpose, and each purpose has its own sub-purposes. Water for drinking and sanitation on a ranch, feedlot, dairy, pig, or poultry farm, or a similar operation raising livestock is “livestock and animal,” a sub-purpose of the industrial purpose.
Irrigation is a purpose of its own: water used on cultivated land or hay meadows to grow crops, or on pasture to grow forage. Several other farm uses also count as industrial, including washing crops, frost protection, and greenhouses.
The line that decides it: water for animals kept for your household, or as pets, is domestic use, and domestic use from a well needs no licence. Livestock raised as an enterprise are not household animals.
The Note: Choose the purpose that matches what the water does, not what the operation is called. A ranch that waters stock and irrigates hay uses water for two purposes, and the application should name both. A licence covers the purposes written on it, so a use that isn’t listed isn’t covered.
Who should pay attention: Ranches, dairies, feedlots, poultry and pig farms, kennels and boarding facilities, and anyone buying land with a working stock-water well.
What to do next: Check the purpose on your licence or application against what the water actually does. If something doesn’t match, raise it with FrontCounter BC before you rely on the licence in a sale, a loan, or a dry year.
