Officials Told Water Consultants "NO" to Okanagan Lake

Everything has history.

Did you know that natural settling clarifies/filters water?
Yup, and Mother Nature does that for free! 

When the public learns of the one folly (of telling water consultants "NO" to Okanagan Lake/Kal Lake for all domestic use), they'll be livid.

"...they (water consultants) all concluded that NOWA (now Duteau Creek) water was the least desirable for domestic use.  Kalamalka Lake, followed by Okanagan Lake, water was found to be much more desirable."

Yup, and pertinent excerpts from newspapers have the historical record to back it up.
With one or two exceptions, it wasn't elected officials who made the decisions!

It was chiefly bureaucrats/unelected people who told water consultants what to do.
Then water consultants were tasked with figuring out how to do it.

"The real villains are those whose dereliction of duties

led to this disastrous (water) situation."

  G. Kiss

So let's look at historical Letters to the Editor, beginning with this one 13 years ago, June 30, 2002:
(Bold/highlighting:  blog author).

Water Woes Reach the Boiling Point, by Gyula Kiss
Greater Vernon residents are being warned that the only way to avoid future boil water advisories is to buy into a multi-million dollar plan (Morning Star, June 5).

Are my eyes deceiving me?  Could this be for real?  
The boil water advisory involved 3,000 customers of NOWA (formerly VID).  The rest of the 40,000 customers who are getting their water from Kalamalka Lake were fine.  How come the solution for the 3,000 customers would be to change the source of water supply for everyone else at an exorbitant cost?  

The $100 million (and probably much more by the time it's completed) plan involves the filtering and disinfecting and distributing of NOWA water to all Greater Vernon customers.  My question is:  Would it not be cheaper to disinfect, if necessary, and distribute Kalamalka or Okanagan Lake water to all domestic customers?  Disinfection will be either by ultra-violet irradiation or ozone treatment -- either of which would kill all micro-organisms including Giardia (beaver fever) and Criptosporidium.  No filtration would be necessary for the lake water as natural settling achieves that.  

In the 26 years I have lived in the Greater Vernon area, the only time I had trouble with the water occurred when the source was from NOWA.  Turbidity, sometimes odour, colour and micro-organisms were the main problems with the water.  Some years we also had water shortages when even agricultural users were put on rationing (many of us may remember the time Grizzly Swamp was drained, resulting in major fish kill and rationing).  I wonder how we could provide adequate water to our customers if we were to use NOWA sources.

Numerous earlier water studies have been commissioned for the North Okanagan and they all concluded that NOWA water was the least desirable for domestic use.  Kalamalka Lake, followed by Okanagan Lake, water was found to be much more desirable.

Compelling arguments may convince me (although not likely) that "bottled quality" (and close to bottle priced) water may be the best for my lawn, toilets, dishwasher, etc.  It would be a lot more difficult to convince me that NOWA water is the best to treat for domestic use.

Politicians seem to think that we all have bottomless pockets.  Having just spent $25 million on the Multiplex and the Performing Arts Centre, and another million on the new Coldstream Municipal Hall, I am in no mood to spend $100 million on a new water treatment plant when it appears that better alternatives are available.  Perhaps local politicians' priorities have been skewed all along.

G. Kiss

Want more historical proof of the water authority's idiocy?
The next 18 pages are valuable correspondence and Letters to the Editor, all provided  here.  

Then this second set of links provide yet more compelling comments, some from the public, in particular, see "Four Reasons to Say No" by Tom Skinner, Letter to the Editor dated May 12, 2004.

"Otherwise what would the $70 million have been for?" quips Kia.

Indeed, what was the $70 million for? 

Time to change the roster at the camp?

The grassroots group "Citizens for Change to the Master Water Plan" was recently formed to remind officials at Greater Vernon Water that the public said NO to the six projects of the Master Water Plan when they voted overwhelmingly against borrowing the $70 million for the Plan.

Greater Vernon Water bureaucrats, via their mouthpiece, director Mike Macnabb, don't see it that way.

"That's ludicrous," says Kia.