Delays...Delays...Delays...a sure thing with the Master Water Plan.
This from Bob Spiers' excellent blog--Don Quixote--Vernon Blog on the latest Master Water Plan news.
(Direct copy 'n paste from his material).
"Independent review stalled for Greater Vernon water plan
Calls for independent scrutiny of Greater Vernon’s water system have been stalled. The master water plan stakeholder advisory committee recommended Thursday to the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee that the request for an independent engineering consultant be postponed pending review of the 2012 plan by the stakeholders group. “It’s not necessary until we understand the plan better,” said Paul Williamson, SAC member. The request for an independent consultant had come from the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan. However, Williamson, who made the motion to defer the request, stated that bringing a consultant on board now could be costly and add complexities to the discussion. Opposition to the motion came from Terry Mooney, a SAC member and chairperson of the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan. “The idea behind the request is that a fresh new look of the plan is required,” said Mooney, adding that 1,000 people have signed a petition in favour of a review. The stakeholder advisory committee was formed after a majority of Greater Vernon residents voted against borrowing $70 million for the plan in 2014. Mooney says the process that led to the failed referendum must be avoided. “None of us are an expert on any of these areas. I would not want to see the public disenfranchised from an independent set of eyes and ears,” he said. “We need advice along the way to discuss technical data.” Other SAC members, though, pointed out that a peer review of the plan could occur in the future. “At some stage it may be appropriate to say we hit a dam in moving this forward,” said Robert Evans. Jim Garlick, Coldstream mayor and SAC chairperson, is hopeful the 18 committee members will be able to be thorough in their deliberations. “It will all be a fresh, new look because we have new people asking questions,” he said. Thursday was the inaugural gathering of the SAC and members are trying to familiarize themselves with Greater Vernon’s water system. Numerous requests were made for information, including the price of operating the Kalamalka Lake and Duteau Creek sources. “On the minds of people I talk to, it’s the cost,” said member Ray Foisy. Also on Thursday, the committee decided that it wants to hear from a representative of the consulting engineering technical group that developed the 2012 master water plan."
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Water Review Consultant Postponed
Posted on 10/1/2015 by Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM
Already some disagreement after the first meeting of the group looking into Greater Vernon's master water plan. A stakeholders advisory committee is recommending a request to use an independent consultant during the process be postponed, possibly until the end of the review. "It's not necessary until we known more about the costs. It will just drive up the costs," says committee member Paul Williamson. A vote on the motion had two committee members opposed. One of them was Terry Mooney from the group Citizens For Change. He says an outside expert could help the committee members with all the technical data, and would provide a different opinion to just getting the information from regional district staff. "That's not what the public wants. The public wants a fresh, new look at the master water plan, "Mooney tells Kiss FM. Committee chair and Coldstream Mayor Jim Garlick says it was felt adding a consultant at this point could be costly and unnecessary . "There are questions, but I can ask them of staff and educate myself with the documents that exist. And if down the line, I have more detailed questions then we're maybe going to need to bring somebody in," says Garlick. The recommendation will next go to the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee October 8th who will discuss if an independent consultant is needed. The 18 person volunteer committee, which is made up of residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial water users, will meet once a month until next March and make recommendations to GVAC. Eight of the members represent the biggest water users, residential, while commercial/industry reps include Sleeman Breweries, Tekmar, Vernon Lodge, Wesbild Holdings, Noric House, Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, Vernon Jubilee Hospital and the Vernon School District. The other two members are Garlick and GVAC chair Juliette Cunningham. The committee will next meet Oct 22 at the RDNO office, with all meetings open to the public.
"The dice are not only loaded at SAC meetings, the table is slanted," offers Kia.
And, continuing on the water topic, an interesting story on Coldstream Ranch's artesian well, also from Bob Spiers' blog:
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Natural Resources plugs pesky B.C. well after trying for 50 years - Water flow has finally been stopped after numerous failed attempts
Canada's worst plumbing disaster finally appears to be plugged, after a half-century of trial and error that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The Coldstream Ranch artesian well has been a soggy headache for the federal government since June 1965, when a team of geologists accidentally drilled into an uncharted layer of pressurized groundwater. The well, just east of Vernon, B.C., immediately began spouting at a rate of up to 3,800 litres a minute, quickly creating a crater measuring almost eight metres in diameter in the middle of a private cattle ranch. "Things got awful wet fast," said Ted Osborn, who grew up on the ranch and now works there. "They just got their well-rigging out of there and the place all around it collapsed." The Geological Survey of Canada spent two years trying to cap the flow, dumping several thousand bags of concrete and other material into the hole. Oil workers from Alberta were brought in to give advice. Officials eventually settled for a solution in 1967 that reduced the flow and directed much of the water, stinking of rotten eggs because of the high sulphur content, into a local creek.But the pesky well would not be tamed. Officials returned in 1979 for another two-year remediation effort. By 2009, things were again falling apart — a Canadian version of the sorcerer's apprentice as the rogue well slopped more and more water across the landscape. The British Columbia government then weighed in. The province demanded "a long-term solution to address the sediment discharge and uncontrolled water flow, both of which contravene federal and provincial regulations and threaten public health and safety, fish habitat and the environment," said a Natural Resources Canada internal document, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act. 'The original Coldstream Ranch well is now closed. One concern was the ground sediment that the water washes into local waterways, potentially choking everything swimming in them. And so began another years-long effort to cap the infamous Coldstream Ranch well. But Natural Resources Canada says it has finally completed the job begun more than 50 years ago. "The original Coldstream Ranch well is now closed," said department spokeswoman Caitlin Workman. "The remediation plan saw … the well permanently sealed." Most of the work occurred this summer. Engineers hired by Ottawa encountered numerous problems, including a spontaneous sinkhole that had to be filled; removal of 40 years' worth of failed technology from the hole, such as a twisted casing and numerous metal screens; and far more concrete poured than was expected. The engineers also drilled a new, controlled "relief well" to take the pressure off the main well, while an older unreliable "relief well' was itself plugged. Officials will be monitoring the site for at least a year to make sure the new plugs don't pop, potentially flooding a nearby road, house and railroad tracks. The latest operation cost taxpayers at least $3.9 million, about $500,000 over budget, though final costs won't be known until next March. Workman said the ranch owner, Keith Balcaen, was not paid any compensation.Ted Osborn, director of projects at Coldstream Ranch, says a relief well at the site will provide much needed water. Osborn, whose father was a Coldstream Ranch manager, is director of ranch projects and liaised with federal officials on the well-capping. "It seems to be working," he said in an interview. "It seems a very high probability that the work has sealed it." The ranch, which has cherry orchards in addition to cattle, is in a dry area and can use additional water pumped under controlled conditions from the relief well. "It was an unfortunate situation … but the water can be used to good advantage," Osborn said.
"Imagine sealing a well--despite its sulphur content--with all the water problems here," muses Kia.
There must be technology out there somewhere that could've separated the sulphur and allowed Vernon residents to have all the water they need from Coldstream Ranch's artesian well.
There's another artesian well several properties east of Highlands Golf on Buchanan Road.
"If only to finally quiet the Okanagan Basin Water Board's constant complaints about how much water every person in the Okanagan uses," grumbles Kia.
Yes, everyone's sick of hearing that.
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