An Overbuilt and Underused Water System

You won't hear bureaucrats at Greater Vernon Water--or Greater Vernon Advisory Committee members (with the exception of Councillors Kiss and perhaps Spiers)--ever using that phrase to describe the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant.

Especially since Greater Vernon Water has imposed a consumption reduction of 10 per cent with Stage 1 Water Restrictions.


A betting person would win hands down if the soon-to-be appointed members of the new Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) don't hear that Duteau Creek is an overbuilt facility in an underused water system.

You know...the new advisory committee to the old advisory committee.

The Greater Vernon Water process
 

So let's look at the much-touted future needs of residents--on which the 2012 Master Water Plan which replaced the 2002 Master Water Plan--were based.

The first table, produced by Gyula Kiss, shows the predicted water consumption for 40 years to the year 2052.  

The next table shows the actual consumption (based on GVWU annual reports from 2011 to 2014).  Look carefully to note the difference between predicted and actual consumption.

  Did we build too big a system?

  Did we pay too much for the system?

As Councillor Kiss' table points out, if we were expecting to use 9,670 in 2011 should we not use that as the base for the 10 per cent reduction in water consumption?  After all, the utility was predicting that volume!  If the planners expected to have the consumption based on those figures, is it not possible that our rates are influenced by the reduced consumption?  If we cannot provide the necessary volumes today at 6,000 ML per year, what can we expect in 2062?

The last attachment utilizes the July 15th volume graph with some explanation.  During the first nearly three months of hot temperatures, we used about 4,000 ML of water from Duteau.  On September 15th the irrigation system is typically shut down.  In order to be in the Stage 1 zone in September, we would have to use over 7,000 MLs from the Duteau reservoir.

  Is this likely to happen?

So, the big questions now are:

Is the reduced consumption request justifiable?

  Is the reduction in revenues resulting from the

reduction in usage justifiable?

  Will the increased rates to recover

shortfalls of revenue be justifiable?

Answers to questions in Bold print:

Yes.

Yes.

No.  

No.

No.

No.

 "Quite a detour from the lies my father told me," says Kia.

...but your Dad meant well.