Right on, Maria!

If bureaucrats wag the tails of political dogs, what's amiss or missing when a politician or two cry foul?
When a politician or two go against the wishes of other politicians who approved the earlier plan?

You'd think bureaucrats would go out of their way to convince any dissenters that the status quo was indeed correct to have approved the earlier plan.

"...this plan is flawed and should be challenged" 

     Maria Besso, Coldstream councillor

 

What--or who--gives bureaucrats the audacity to refuse (imagine that!) the request of one or two elected officials who demand more information of the area's Master Water Plan?  When bureaucrats refuse to revisit a plan with a peer review...indeed even to attend a meeting for a Question and Answer session at an adjacent community's council meeting? 

Consultants, that's what.
And, likely, fear.
Fear that bureaucrats themselves, and other politicians on the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee--were incorrect in approving original consultants' plans in the first place.

Bureaucrats can't lose their jobs at the polls.
Bureaucrats will continue hiring consultants...perhaps even--as is suspected in this case--consultants that agree with their original position.

So, for any politician to--at the eleventh hour--question an approved multi-million dollar plan might be a sign of political suicide.
Or that the cream of the political crop has indeed risen to the top, given further study of the data that formulated the Master Water Plan.

Admittedly the above is a hell of a long intro...to the following Letter to the Editor by Coldstream Councillor Maria Besso (in support of Coldstream Councillor's Gyula Kiss' position).

First, Maria's questions to the technical experts at the Regional District of North Okanagan:

1.  Given that the water from Duteau Creek is much more expensive to treat than the Kal Lake water (about four times as expensive in the winter), and given that most of the water from the Duteau source is needed and used for agricultural irrigation, why does phase 1 of the new 2012 master water plan call for the planning and building of a huge capacity filtration plant at Duteau prior to doing filtration at Kalamalka Lake, when Kal Lake supplies 80 per cent of the domestic water supply for Greater Vernon?

2.  Could you please explain, and quantify the magnitude of the direct effect on residential, industrial, institutional, commercial and agricultural water rates if the relative distribution of expenses between the types of customers remains the same as it is now, and we incur the costs projected in the master water plan that has been approved by the (other) politicians?  

3.  Could you please clearly review, for the public, the timeline and expenditures that have been proposed in phase one of the 2012 MWP, for which they are being asked to endorse the borrowing referendum of $70 million dollars?


Now, Maria Besso's preamble to her three questions:

"I am writing in response to your article 'no peer review for water plan' in The Morning Star.  In my opinion, this is a very bad decision taken by the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee.

I understand that the politicians feel powerless to challenge a plan that has been put forward by technical experts.  But in my opinion, this plan is flawed and should be challenged.

Most people just want to know if there is going to be fresh, clean, safe drinking water when they turn on the tap, and how much will they pay for it.

As one reporter put it to me, "Just cut to the chase, how much is the new water rate?"

Well, after having watched the process for five years, and water rates climb every year, while domestic consumption goes down, and the water utility is left with a shortfall in revenue, I have started to think that this is the definition of insanity.  We do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

To have some influence on the cost of water, we have to start paying attention to what is in the plan.

If we proceed with the master water plan option that has been approved by GVAC, then we will need to borrow $70 million to pay for the projects in phase one of the plan.

In phase one, we will immediately start with plans to build a huge capacity (110 megalitres per day) filtration plant at Duteau Creek.  It will cost $26.5 million to build this filtration plant.

The Duteau plant treats water from the Aberdeen Plateau lakes.  These lakes draw from an abundant supply of water from a neighbouring watershed.

The quality of this water is yellow and full of organics.  Many will remember the yellow VID water we had prior to October 2010 when the Duteau plant first opened. 

We have come a long way since then, but it comes at a cost.

"In summer...64 Olympic-size pools per day.

In winter...we treat 2.4 Olympic-size pools per day.

The difference ... the irrigation water that we treat!"

Because most of the water that comes from Duteau was used for irrigation, and irrigation uses a lot of water at summer peak, we had to build a huge treatment plant to handle the peak demand, and treat all the water (irrigation and domestic water in the same pipes).

To illustrate the insanity, in the summer of 2011, we treated 160 megalitres of water per day at the Duteau plant (the equivalent of 64 Olympic-size pools per day).  By contrast, in the winter of 2011 when there was no irrigation, we treated six megalitres per day (the equivalent of 2.4 Olympic-size pools).  That means that 96 per cent of water went for irrigation.

"...then filter Kal first." 

Even with some expensive pipe separation, this plan will have us using the majority of the water we filter for irrigation of fields.  This is wrong.

Also by building the filtration plant at Duteau as a first step, we are again building a huge, expensive, over-capacity plant, while Kal Lake water remains the cheaper to clean, more desirable source of domestic drinking water. 

Kal Lake water is cheaper to filger because it's cleaner to begin with, so if that continues to be the IHA (Interior Health) requirement, and we cannot get around it, then filter Kal first.

Some Coldstream politicans have asked for a third-party peer review.

Since this review is not forthcoming, and a borrowing referendum has been approved by GVAC, I feel that the public will want, and need, many questions answered to help make up their minds."

Maria Besso, Coldstream councillor

 

 Note:  The City of Kelowna has applied for Filtration Deferral here. 
 Note:  An interesting view, author Jim Cooperman, re Vernon's possible need for Shuswap water is here:
 Note:  A virtual tour of the Duteau water treatment plant is here.

  
"If this is phase 1, the concept of phase 2 scares the hell out of me," intones Kia.


Whatever happens, a big thanks to Maria Besso and Gyula Kiss, councillors at District of Coldstream, for having the chutzpah to question not only their counterparts, but consultants and bureaucrats (both at RDNO and Interior Health).

Where the hell is Coldstream Mayor, Jim Garlick's push to have this insane plan corrected/revised/stopped????

After all, he's been on GVAC all along.