Interior Health Damns Duteau as Domestic Water Source

Edit:  June 28/15.  A big thanks to a Commenter  who provided

 a link to Mike Stamhuis' presentation (referred to in the blog article).

Damns...with an "n".
Not dams, as in erecting a barrier to water's normal flow.

Who would've thought that Interior Health would provide all the information necessary to conclusively prove that GVW's--and three consultants'--choice of Duteau Creek as a domestic water source was sheer folly.

Who indeed?

The grassroots group Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan discovered a new ally:  the 7-page report issued by Interior Health to Greater Vernon Advisory Committee members.  The report was at Agenda stage listed as In Camera; then it was correctly removed from In Camera.

• Remember that Duteau Creek was initially an irrigation source before the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant was built, and

• Consider that Kelowna's domestic customers mostly receive their water from Okanagan Lake, at just over one-third the costs that North Okanagan customers pay GVW for water.

A few points of folly that jump out:    
Potable water is a regulatory requirement of any water supplier...for domestic customers.  It must be "safe to drink and fit for domestic purposes without further treatment.”  The Ministry of Health's microbiological objectives for Surface Water Supplies provide the minimum expectations; it is up to the water supplier to determine how to meet (or exceed) the minimum expectations.  Then the water supplier and Interior Health determine (by) when those minimum expectations will be met. 

Protozoa are organisms that can cause illness.  The IHA report notes that "there is a level of endemic illness occurring". . 

Figure 7 of the report provides Medical Services Plan statistics of the weekly level of intestinal infectious diseases in the Cariboo/Thompson region of the Kamloops area.

In November of 2012, the Ministry of Health indicated that “Existing water supply systems may have some appreciable risk for certain parameters without treatment in place. In such cases, it is acceptable from a public health perspective for water supply systems to present drinking water officers with a continuous improvement plan that addresses implementing treatment for these parameters within a reasonable time period.”

To meet treatment objectives, two treatment processes are preferred to address the Ministry's requirement for continuous improvement to reduce or deactive viruses, reduce or deactive Giardia (also known as Beaver Fever) and Cryptosporidium, low Turbidity thresholds (to prevent organic matter from "burning out" any chlorination process too soon), and NO detectable E.coli.

But what if the raw water supply is routinely poor?
Interior Health reports that:  "chlorination or U.V. light usually require a minimum raw water quality and chlorine set duration of time."   And that's when IHA's Multiple Barrier Approach is required.

It's because of Duteau Creek's historical and frequently high turbidity levels...that the Multiple Barrier Approach of combining filtration with UV or chlorination is required to provide the minimum raw water quality Interior Health requires.  Is it any wonder that Kelowna's water system received a filtration deferral?  Nope.  Okanagan Lake has far fewer turbidity issues, and likely of shorter duration when turbidity does occur!

I'm frankly surprised that Interior Health--let alone Greater Vernon Water--hasn't, in all these years, made an(y) effort to minimize (exclude) contamination risks, where possible.  In a thinly-veiled effort to advance the unfunded master water plan project of raising the Duteau Creek dam to this year, GVW recently whined about the risk of mud-boggers at the water source.  And the threat to valleybottom residences and communities if mud-boggers caused the dam to deteriorate and fail.

It wasn't lost on thinking people that raising the dam by four metres was--during the borrowing vote scant months earlier--originally scheduled for seven years from now.  The question needs to be asked of GVW:  had the borrowing referendum been approved, would 2022 still be the year to raise the dam height?  Maybe GVW had an unreported solution to mud-boggers "waiting in the wings"?

The stroke of a Provincial pen in Victoria can entirely eliminate the "stakeholder" class of "the public recreationist" at Duteau Creek...yet IHA and GVW seem to have lost the "seat of government" phone number.

But come on folks!  Mud-boggers?  Campers at the shoreline of our water source?  Really?  A risk even more critical is cattle.  Mike Stamhuis--back in 2002 or 2003--as Manager of the now-defunct/ renamed North Okanagan Water Authority (NOWA) made a distinguished (yes, distinguished) presentation to our province's Legislative Assembly.  While I thought I had bookmarked the document at the time, I can't find it today.  It resides somewhere within Hansard.  EDIT:  The Hansard document is here.  Mike Stamhuis' presentation begins at page 1647.

Mike Stamhuis explained the severe risk to public health of cattle grazing adjacent to--and pooping in-- drinking water sources, especially the contamination caused by calves.  Perhaps a cattle lobby was instrumental in his "transfer"...perhaps not.  The facts remain.  Extreme public health danger exists despite some efforts having been made to keep cattle out of the water source.  Mud-boggers, cattle, public camping.  No wonder IHA is adamant that Duteau be filtered!  

The previous paragraphs' diatribe leads to IHA's statement about:  - Total coliforms – group of bacteria used to indicate of potential presence of fecal contamination • 0 - E. coli – bacteria species present only in humans and other warm-blooded animals.

IHA has provided Greater Vernon Water, through GVAC, with conditions that must be met to defer/exclude filtration:  a minimum of two forms of disinfection, "very low levels" of E.coli detected in treated water samples, average turbidity (less than 1) cannot exceed 5 NTU more than twice a year and, finally, a watershed control program is maintained to minimize the risk of fecal contamination.

Hopefully, the watershed control program is what would eliminate the risks posed by mud-boggers, cattle and public camping.

Thanks to the Interior Health report, the proof is there.

Duteau Creek should never have become Greater Vernon's second water source.
Now, with the IHA requirement for GVW to manage risks, it's still proof that Okanagan Lake would have been the best choice.

"The Interior Health report could actually become a new friend," offers Kia.

Let's hope GVAC directors know how to read between the lines. 
All of them.
Not just two.