Metro-Vancouver Planning to Expand Water Storage Infrastructure by Late 2030's

via Metro-Vancouver

The Coquitlam Lake Water Supply Project is a major infrastructure project to access more water from Coquitlam Reservoir, the largest of the three drinking water sources, and deliver it to more than half of the region’s three million residents.

link to original article: https://metrovancouver.org/services/water/coquitlam-lake-water-supply-project 

To ensure we can continue to provide drinking water to the region for the next century, we need to both manage our demand through conservation, and expand our supply through building new infrastructure.

Projects of this size and scale take decades to plan for, design and build. Once completed, we​ will add a new water intake close to the lake’s deepest point, a water supply tunnel, and filtration plant that can treat water even during severe rainstorms and landslides.

The project is estimated to be complete in the late 2030s and will further strengthen Coquitlam Lake’s role in our region’s drinking water system. The timeline considers population growth, climate change impacts of increased droughts and reduced snowpack, and increased water conservation.

Project update
May 27, 2026

Early works include project scoping, studies and analysis, land acquisition, site testing, various permitting and regulatory steps, engagement, and preliminary design.

The Project Definition phase was completed in 2021, the Permitting and Regulatory phase is in progress, and Preliminary Design is starting later in 2026. We are currently focused on key provincial permits and authorizations including a water licence and land acquisition for the filtration treatment plant and right of way for the tunnel.

Metro Vancouver is engaging First Nations and stakeholders and will soon begin engaging the public to ensure the project considers their values, concerns, and priorities.

Metro Vancouver is committed to working closely with kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem First Nation) and recognizes the project will be constructed in kʷikʷəƛ̓əm traditional territory. We are conducting technical studies to better understand potential project related effects and develop potential solutions to minimize these effects in and around Coquitlam Lake.

To receive notifications on engagement opportunities, please subscribe to the Coquitlam Lake Water Supply Project mailing list.

Coquitlam Lake has served as a water source since the late 1890s. Today, it supplies about 370 million litres of water per day, or about one-third of the total drinking water demand of the region’s 2.7 million ​residents.

Metro Vancouver completed a long-term water supply study that assessed the water system’s resiliency to potential hazards and identified actions necessary for the continued supply and delivery of water over the next 100 years. The results showed that Metro Vancouver can meet the needs of a growing population and respond to impacts of climate change by expanding the use of existing water supply sources.