Snowpack a Concern, admits Greater Vernon Water

March 1st readings indicate the snowpack on the Aberdeen Plateau -- the source for customers of the Duteau Creek system -- are 56 per cent of normal, announces the front page of The Morning Star today.

Al Cotsowrth, manager of Greater Vernon Water utility, admits "that's the lowest ever recorded in 41 years."

He adds "It's possible Stage 1 restrictions (odd-even watering days) could be skipped altogether."

Really?

Guess he hasn't yet seen his boss' website (text about halfway down the page) which announces immediate Stage TWO Water Restrictions.

While the faux-pas does indicate the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is up to, there's a bigger picture issue here.  But it's apparently lost on both officials.  It's the perennial problem of doing nothing about increasing water storage. 

My property is on a south slope that faces the ridge of elevated land called the Aberdeen Plateau and, during my 32-year residency, I often find myself glancing at the plateau with jealousy.  Why?  Because on the hottest and driest summer afternoons in the Coldstream Valley--when the wind exacerbates the sun's drying action on the land and all it contains--expanding black clouds are nearly always present atop the Aberdeen Plateau.

I recall the comment of a colleague--probably 20 years ago in the local forest industry--whose wide eyes underscored his sentence as he pointed to the Aberdeen Plateau, "there's an entirely different weather system up there," said Bob Massey, former Riverside logging supervisor, adding "You can be in sunshine one moment, a little black cloud arrives, it builds into a huge black cloud that opens up with lighning and thunder and pours down hard rain...more afternoons in the summer than not, while the valley bottom and the south slopes don't even receive clouds, and certainly no rain."

So other than frequently changing their name, why hasn't the obviously painful evolution of our water authority -- Vernon Irrigation District, North Okanagan Water Authority, Greater Vernon Water -- increased storage with bigger, deeper reservoirs (yes...plural)?

Why hasn't the Okanagan Basin Water Board (yet another of many "unelected committee" groups that festoon our area's three overlapping layers of government) provided support to increase water storage?  It's certainly not ownership issues, as almost the entire plateau is Crown land, owned by the citizens of British Columbia.

Photo dated July 7, 2009 from my property of one of the Aberdeen Plateau's rampaging weather systems during most--yes most--summer afternoons.  I can see the rain!  

The next photo of an expanding system building over the Aberdeen Plateau was snapped September 3, 2009.

 

During those and many other -- but unphotographed afternoons -- my property remains as dry as popcorn.  The weather systems of the Aberdeen Plateau generally head east after "dumping" across the valley.

The following photo of the Aberdeen Plateau was taken July 26th.  My property was partly cloudy and very hot, receiving not a drop of rain.  Yet rainclouds form above the Aberdeen Plateau and, unfortunately, dump their valuable rain only there.

Even during winter, there are different weather systems on that side of the Coldstream Valley.  The next photo was snapped on January 22, 2009.  My property had 100% visibility extending to the north, yet looking south to the Aberdeen Plateau, here's another weather system hovering there, with virtually zero visibility.

I doubt I'm the only person in the valley today who knows it rains hard and often on the Aberdeen Plateau.
So are any plans in place to build containment there? 
I suppose not...officials seem preoccupied with re-writing restrictions for hand watering.

Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.

Wish we'd get something else.
The ability to plan for more than a few months at a time.
Dare we hope for intelligent planning?

"I'm going to put my water dish in the shade," offers Kia.