Water Source Protection

The Interior Health Authority's stringent demands to filter Duteau Creek water--even after chlorination with last year's construction of the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant--point the finger at Greater Vernon Water, entirely missing a critical component :  impacts from current usage of the lands surrounding the reservoirs.

The IHA even ignores the recommendation of a local aquatic biologist with 30 years' experience.

"No substitute exists for source water protection," avowed Heather Larratt at last year's Water Supply Association of British Columbia.  The real clincher with that comment, though, is the bureaucratic mire caused by present and historical uses of the area.

It'd be difficult to choose the worst offenders among wildlife (including geese, deer, fish and reptiles), logging, ranching, recreational, illegal dumping, forest diseases, drought, climate change -- indeed, even privately-owned lakefront cottages -- but all have a negative impact on water quality in Duteau Creek's upland reservoirs, which is one of nine sources of water for the community.  Duteau Creek now supplies approximately 95 per cent of the area's water, as customers formerly on the Kalamalka Lake source are increasingly connected to the Duteau system.

A map of our water system's intricate distribution network is here, with source details here.

The biggest historical complaint about Duteau water has always been turbidity, but the water treatment plant's construction has virtually eliminated the incidences of cloudy, beige water.

What Heather Larratt was talking about in her presentation on source protection is pathogen contamination -- Giardia and Cryptosporidium -- principal pathogens of concern.

So it's good that Interior Health is demanding filtration, right?

You'd think so, even with the fact no Federal or Provincial infrastructure money is offered by the provincial health authority to assist in financing the $20 million anticipated cost.

But we've just spent nearly $30 million on the water treatment plant to eliminate turbidity!  Local officials admit they buckled--despite knowing that bacterial issues were more important to public health--to pressure from homeowners to provide clear -- but not necessarily safer -- water.

Back to aquatic biologist Larratt, who knows British Columbia ranks below--yes, below--Chile and China in watershed protection, who are raising the bar and purchasing back watershed lands owned by the public!
At fault is British Columbia's grandfathering philosophy, because its very principle prevents protecting the water source.  Heather feels we should be purchasing back lakefront cottages from homeowners, as these cottages are certainly not on sewer but use septic fields or approved biological waste disposal systems.

In addition, the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health should be working together to form new policy and minimize public impacts, with a view to totally eliminating impacts from mountain bikers, snowmobilers, campers, fishers and hunters, etc.  Educating the public isn't enough to reduce contamination; perhaps eliminating those uses entirely from reservoir perimeters is the only way it can be achieved.

"Many people don't realize that their own activities in the watershed--as small as they may be--can make a huge difference to lake water quality," admits Heather.

Touchy subject, telling recreationists they may in future need to be excluded from Crown lands which they, in effect own..  Even Metro Vancouver's water use plan doesn't do that...yet.

But a great opportunity exists on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 when officials of Interior Health and Greater Vernon Water get together at the Water Source Protection symposium in Kelowna.   

It's up to Renee Clark, our area's Water Quality Manager, to get the message across to Interior Health that more needs to be done than simply we taxpayers throwing money at filtration.  Let's reduce the prevalence of contamination.

"Maybe invite Heather Larratt along," suggests Kia.

Renee has a huge responsibility ahead...good luck on February 28th.