From the Mouths of Babes

"Eeeuuuwww, Oma, what stinks?"

That question was from my 3-year old grandson, who lives at the other end (the far end of the Duteau Water Treatment Plant's distribution line), which is proof in itself.

Proof of what?
I'll back up a bit.

While grandson gathered his favourite tub toys from his once-a-week bedroom here, I had unwittingly run his bath.  He normally has a bath at home but today was different.  I say unwittingly because we who live here are so used to "it".  His four-word question arose as I turned off the bath water and helped him into the tub.

It was then I realized his little nostrils weren't accustomed to it...the smell, the stink that emanates from our water taps, especially during the winter months.  It's the stink--in a tiled room where hard surfaces don't absorb odors as would a carpeted bedroom, for example.  The counter, fixtures, tiled walls...they all seem to bounce water's stink around the bathroom.

"It's the smell of our water," I said feebly to those innocent and very young, questioning eyes.

Needless to say, I rushed through the lather and rinse and pat-dry stage very quickly and sent him to the bedroom to get his PJs on.
I opened the window wide and firmly closed the door.

In this house, H and I call it "winter over-chlorination".
Our residence is relatively close to the Duteau Water Treatment Plant, whereas the grandson and his parents reside almost at the terminus of the distribution line.

Huh?  What's that got to do with the stink?
Plenty.

An employee of the water utility, when asked years ago why the water stinks so badly especially in winter, told me the following:  "Yeah, we have to put 'x' amount of chemicals in at the plant so that at the end of the line, we still get 'x' chlorine readings (proving effectiveness of bacteria reduction).  At your location so close to the plant, you'll get that stink."

But why is it so strong during winter?

As is more often the case than not, scientist and Coldstream councillor Gyula Kiss provides answers to all manner of questions in his documents, in this case:

Excerpt from August 16, 2012 Technical Committee Meeting: 
"6.  Results of trihalomethane (THM) sampling data were presented...It is alarming that in 2012 THM in Duteau water samples were about 2.5 times that of samples from Kalamalka Lake water.  THMs are the product of chlorination of water for domestic use.  The most common THM is chloroform produced by chlorine reacting with methane dissolved in water.  I do not believe methane would be reduced by filtration.  THMs are considered to be carcinogenic."

and this excerpt from September 13, 2012 Technical Advisory Committee Meeting: 
"It is preposterous to consider a separate line to deliver the raw irrigation water while the current line continues to deliver mixed domestic/irrigation water.  As the ultimate objective is to limit treatment to domestic supply it is likely that eventually only a trickle of treated water will be flowing in these huge lines just as it does now during the winter season."


Frankly, I'm extremely pissed off that I exposed my grandson to these dangerous fumes.


"I love a dirty kid," Kia would've said, adding "it's dirty bureaucrats who don't do their jobs properly that I can't stand."

Grandson won't be getting a bath here again during winter.
Even if he's covered in an inch of peanut butter!

Middle-of-the-night email?

Holy cow, talk about ramming.

Coldstream Councillor Kiss was overheard saying that "the email arrived at 1:30 in the morning", referring to Greater Vernon Water's 2016 draft budget, only scant hours before the meeting!

"I would've wanted more time to check out the details of the 30-page submission," said Vernon councillor Bob Spiers in his blog.

No kidding.

Rather than attaching the proposed budget's 30 pages, this blog has the link to GVW's 2016 Rate Increase proposal covers 6 pages here in an easy-to-read format.
 

Source:  Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan

From GVW's proposed budget, $655,000 will go towards reserves.

Five million dollars is slated for new projects (any projects over $5 million must go to public referendum) and $4 million for work carried over from 2015. 

"Wasn't the $4 million for work carried over from 2015 already in reserves?" questions Kia.

And the Kal Lake intake was already approved (i.e. budgeted for?), n'est ce pas?


The Morning Star newspaper, on January 31st, 2016, helps bureaucrats get their message across (in more ways than one), as follows.

"Water work adds up to $19 million, by Rolke:

There's a lot on tap for Greater Vernon's water utility in 2016.

The Greater Vernon Advisory Committee approved a $19 million budget for the water utility during a special meeting Thursday.

"The projects presented are reasonable.  We're trying to replace old infrastructure," said Juliette Cunningham.

The budget includes $5 million for new projects and $4 million for work carried over from 2015.

Among those moving ahead are replacing water meters, expanding dam capacity and extending the Kal Lake intake.

Overall water rates are climbing two per cent, and Cunningham says that's necessary given the scope of work required.

"It's a big system and many parts of it are quite old," she said.

Opposition to the water budget came from directors Bob Spiers and Gyula Kiss.

"I was reluctant to let it go without further study," said Spiers.  "We had no details until 8 a.m. (Thursday).  We could have waited another week or two before making a decision."

However, Spiers says his opposition was more procedural than it was against the budget details.

"I didn't see anything that should be thrown out but when there are 30 pages of figures, it should have more review," he said.

 "GVW could double their revenue by presenting a proposed rate sheet to GVAC twice a year," grins Kia.

They haven't tried that...yet.

"Cooperation" versus "Agreement"

A difference exists between the two definitions.
Splitting hairs, it could be said, but with consequences. 

Today's Morning Star story "Co-operation key for RDNO" in which Chair Rick Fairbairn is quoted as saying "...shows a spirit of cooperation among the partners" puts yet another layer over the veil of transparency in this area's governance.

It also masks with misinformation (to residents) the Board's plans following the November 2014 failure of the $70 million borrowing referendum for the Master Water Plan.

First, the definitions:

cooperation:  "assistance, especially by ready compliance with requests".

agreement:  "the absence of incompatibility between two things; consistency".

Three significant events have occurred since the referendum failure:

• local election candidates' waffling on referendum support:  (first in support, then not--as the election loomed--then following the election--back toeing the line).  Seems almost to a person, candidates waffled more on whom to serve--the public, or their peers--rather than holding an educated and intelligent opinion on a topic. 
• outspoken Master Water Plan critic Gyula Kiss was--for years--an island at GVAC.  His divergent opinions were barely tolerated by peers.  That "island" position equated to Kiss never having a seconder for motions he submitted.  Until Vernon councillor Bob Spiers--decidedly a free-thinker--saw the merits of Kiss' analytical and intelligent motions--and seconded them.  They were each serving their constituents first and foremost.  There were now two islands, with seconded motions now legitimized and recorded in minutes, despite a lack of additional support.   The situation now was obviously intolerable to the pack around the table.  In short order Coldstream Mayor Garlick tossed Gyula Kiss from GVAC, replacing him with Doug Dirk as director (all under the  pretense/guise of a voting terms of reference that excluded an "alternate" committee member).  The consequence?  GVAC is once again back to "the absence of incompatibility".  Meaning: agreement.  And partly--ready compliance with requests--to agree.  Thinking people will equate the mayor's action to one of betraying his constituents and his councillor.
• Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan, a grassroots group promoting change to water rates via consideration of an alternative water source in the North Okanagan, formed and quickly received ~1,000 signatures on their petition.  This led to GVAC denying CCMWP's request for an independent professional review of the MWP--however a volunteer Stakeholders' Advisory Committee of area water users was decided on by GVAC, with monthly meetings that began in October of 2015.  Meetings were conducted by GVW bureaucrats, with Jim Garlick and Juliette Cunningham heading the discussion table as volunteers listened to MWP consultants summarizing the ~1,000 pages of technical memoranda.  This was called a peer review -- an "evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field."  (Ahem!)  The group, the Morning Star story said, "will also continue to meet in 2016 to discuss the future of Greater Vernon's water utility..."

To discuss the future of Greater Vernon's water utility?

"Cool," says Kia, "the utility's future is thrown into the mix."

 
Mayor Garlick, the cooperator...the person that agrees, the betrayer.

Mayor Garlick's Betrayal of Councillor Kiss

...that's what it is.

Things were apparently fine for a long time, despite Coldstream Councillor Gyula Kiss being a thorn in the side of bureaucrats whose plan to further the 2012 Master Water Plan kept moving along...that is until the public rejected the $70 million Greater Vernon Water borrowing referendum in November of 2014. 

Councillor Kiss has always acted on behalf of the majority of his constituents who are domestic water customers and domestic sewer customers.  And he continues to do just that.

His common-sense proposals, springing from an analytical, scientific mind during his seven-year tenure on GVAC and even longer service as councillor weren't welcomed by bureaucrats at GVW and long-serving elected officials who abandoned the 2002 Master Water Plan and approved the 2012 Master Water Plan.

He is one man with ideas frequently contrary to those held by the political and bureaucratic majority in a region so deeply fractured in its governance structure that it's even been called dysfunctional by one or two incumbents and newbies vying for seats in election campaigns.

As long as Kiss remained an island, the bureaucratic and elected bullies at Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meetings felt no compunction to withhold their ridicule of his proposals--indeed, the man himself--during open meetings.

Fast forward to January 2016.
The grassroots group Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan passed its one year anniversary, having obtained ~1,000 petition signatures from the public that demanded an independent review of the MWP.
The Stakeholders' Advisory Committee--entering its last phase of the MWP "review" following denial of the petition request for an independent professional consultant's review--comprises 18 individuals who were interview-screened by bureaucrats at RDNO for their acceptability quotient.  

Then at the regular Monday January 11, 2016, Coldstream Council meeting the machinations of the decidedly dirty side of politics were enacted, as explained on Councillor Kiss' blog entry the next day:

"Further to my earlier comments on GVAC issues here are the newest developments:

Above are the recently re-discovered Terms of Reference for the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee. As it turns out we have been carrying on business in contradiction of that Terms of Reference. Only two people were eligible to be on the GVAC and the RDNO Board of Directors. In Coldstreams' case it was only the appointed Director and his Alternate could sit on both bodies. Thus, effective today I am out of a job as the Director on GVAC and am only appointed as an alternate, in case the two appointees are not able to attend.

It appears that only Coldstream is affected by this strange rule. Four members of Vernon Council are eligible for Directors of RDNO each of whom are eligible for directorship on GVAC.

Another wrinkle of the RDNO rules is that neither the RDNO Director nor his alternate can advise Coldstream Council of any discussions or decisions made in camera at the RDNO in-camera meetings unless specifically authorized by the Board. 

So as a result of these rules I am afraid I cannot represent your interests on the GVAC. I can sit in at the meetings but I cannot vote unless one of the two Directors are absent.

I wanted to let all of you know before you hear it from the Media. I guess it is fair from RDNO's point of view but I am not so sure it is fair for Coldstream. It all depends on whose ox is being gored!

Cheers!" (end of Councillor Kiss' quote)

The 2015 list of directors and alternates is here.  The new list is not yet posted, which will reflect Coldstream Mayor Garlick's betrayal of Councillor Kiss.  Willing to sacrifice his community's weight at GVAC, Mayor Garlick has rejoined the RDNO mob that wants rid of representative Kiss.  Or else it wouldn't have happened!

How effective on GVAC were alternates Dirk and Enns?
See Kia's reply.

"About as effective as teeth on a tree," Kia says.

Mayor Garlick buckled under the weight of all that dirt.
Some of which he flung himself.

I wonder what Mayor Garlick will see when he looks at his face in the mirror while brushing his teeth.

One More Resident Pens Disgust

Bob Patmore penned a letter to the editor of the Morning Star, succinctly expressing what everyone is feeling regarding water rates here:

"WATER WOES: 
In regard to your article about the Greater Vernon master water plan defeat, I can sure see why.

"...voters have lived their lives struggling to pay

their living expenses."

Bob Patmore

For a start, the authorities came down again, like Big Daddy, saying: 'We will do this for you.  All you have to do is grant us $70 million for our plans.'

The citizens of the area, still reeling from recent high expenditures, are saying, 'Enough is enough.'

And now, Eric Foster, MLA, points out that money will not likely be forthcoming from government coffers, as they are spending the money we have given them on locations where there are more voters.

He also includes a veiled threat to put in the water system anyway.  So then we would no doubt have to pay for it.  Thanks a lot Eric.

Many of our voters have lived their lives struggling to pay their living expenses.  A figure of $70 million for a water system is beyond our belief.  The suggestion by Gyula Kiss seems to make sense, and if we used more water from our lakes, we would not have the usual run off problems of muddy surface water from the creek."

                            Bob Patmore

"We should all be grateful to Gyula Kiss...he's encouraging us to think for ourselves...a good start," offers Kia. 

                                                                                              

Baaaaah, baaaaaah.

Patronizing, Pompous and Condescending MLA

He has some nerve to state that funds may not be available.
As though Eric Foster's bosses in Victoria haven't pissed away enough!

We residents are presumably to show some semblance of restraint and not expect our failed water referendum's projects to be funded by Victoria?

How about failed water referenda in both Kamloops and Revelstoke?
They subsequently each received a water treatment plant, compliments of Victoria, thank you very much when residents said "no".

You think we've forgotten all the folks lined up at the public trough?  Huge salaries for even deputy ministers and government executives, and BC Hydro, ICBC and their administrations, to name but a few.  Top executives at BC Investment Management Corp got a 310 per cent wage increase, the B.C. Ferries CEO makes more than top three Washington State ferries executives...on and on it goes.

The Morning Star reported MLA Foster as saying: "A vote 'yes' or 'no' doesn't make a difference about getting the government involved...that's not what would drive it.  Funding is allocated on the merit of an application and if there is funding available."

Drive it?
How dare you even mention the word "merit".
Didn't Interior Health convince their government brothers that "the safety of residents' drinking water" is considered meritous?

Your attitude, Eric Foster, is patronizing, pompous and condescending.
And we don't like it.
Remember that some of us still recall a different Eric Foster 30 years ago...one who knew how to spell the word humility, the first bag you shed when you became MLA.

Instead of your frequent polishing of the door handles at the regional district, try spending an equal amount of time talking to residents--in coffee shops, in malls, at gas stations.  You will quickly learn what you need to learn.
Certainly more than you're learning from bureaucrats with the focus on collaborative efforts.
It's just more bureaucratic schmaltz.
Because you're listening to the wrong people, Eric Foster.

We North Okanagan residents will not be bullied by you or anyone else.   

Fiscal mismanagement in Victoria now fills volumes of media reports--indeed tomes--most notably since Christy Clark's rise to the helm of the B.C. Liberal party. 

What's most upsetting about having typed that last sentence is that I'm a B.C. Liberal.
Okay, former Socred.
Yup.
Since 2011 and 2012, though, I'm more inclined to hold my nose when considering the Liberals' management of this formerly fine province.

Step back from your preconceived notions, Eric Foster, learned from bureaucrats within the confines of the regional district boardroom.
That's far too safe because you end up hearing only what you want to hear.

Go talk to people...taxpayers and you'll get an eye-opener.
The problem started with one premise:  Former GVW Manager Al Cotsworth's admission on why Duteau Water Treatment Plant needed to be built:  "We need to be able to change sources (from Duteau to Kal Lake, and vice versa) during emergencies such as water main breaks or serious contamination".

Throw out that premise.
Start again.

Consider, yes consider, what Gyula Kiss has been saying all along, quoted in the newspaper today:  "...a solution where the Duteau source would provide untreated raw water to the agricultural community and create a supply of treated water to the 20 per cent of domestic customers currently supplied by the irrigation line."

Because 80 per cent of Duteau's chlorinated water is used for irrigation!

Coldstream Councillor Kiss is hoping his "scientific solution--without the crazy political interference"--will be the cream that rises to the top of the slurry.
And it should but it hasn't yet.
But this Master Water Plan will NOT be accepted by residents.

So the powers-that-be had better reconsider Kiss' idea.

We residents are all thinking the same thing:  Could not someone--anyone--have recommended that that 20 per cent of Duteau's customers, who need domestic water, have received a one-time government donation/grant of state of the art water treatment for their home.  Not unlike the government program that donated farmers water meters two years ago...when the rest of us had to pay for meters.

All others, latecomers (new owners from real estate sales, home renovators, etc.) to the chiefly Lavington/East Coldstream area, would be advised that the grant period had ended and that they were solely responsible for domestic water quality.

That would've been a hell of a lot cheaper than what GVW is proposing with the $70 million water plan.
Probably $50 million cheaper...

What'll it take to have common sense prevail? 
First, Eric Foster should get out and talk to the people who pay the bills, who pay his wages (and fund his pension).

"It may take more than civil disobedience and not paying Q1 water bills," offers Kia "to show our contempt for the way we residents are bullied by bureaucrats and politicians."

Yes it might.
But firstly remember that Interior Health works for us, the taxpayers.
Not the other way around.
Same with politicians, of all stripes...and pomposity.

 

BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan made more than the top three Washington State Ferries executives combined." - See more at: http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2014/09/managers-justify-generous-treatment-of.html#sthash.93jrFwDq.dpuf

BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan made more than the top three Washington State Ferries executives combined." - See more at: http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2014/09/managers-justify-generous-treatment-of.html#sthash.93jrFwDq.dpuf

CHBC-TV on Failed Water Referendum

Good job, CHBC-TV in Kelowna.

For including an interview with Gyula Kiss, a director of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee, on the failed water referendum held in the North Okanagan November 15th, 2014.

Mr. Kiss' opposition to the Master Water Plan was supported by the electorate.

Acclaimed Mayor is Part of the Problem

So why quote him after the $70 million water referendum in the North Okanagan fails?

Why not interview Coldstream Councillor Gyula Kiss, whose spearheading of the Master Water Plan's opposition--as the only elected representative (and scientist) on the plan's technical committee--received support from the electorate?

Opposed to the plan were 7,918 residents, while 3,999 voted in favour.
Virtually two-to-one.

But noooooo, Vernon's Morning Star today quoted Coldstream Mayor Jim Garlick as saying "There will be work going ahead...staff will meet with the Interior Health Authority on the results and get feedback from them."

That's not what 7,918 residents want.

Jumping with both feet into the hole he himself helped dig, Mayor Garlick added "The overall number of $70 million was the problem."

No, the overall number was not the problem, Mayor Garlick, although $70 million was a close second on the list of taxpayer complaints.

What people want is that no chlorinated water be used for irrigation of acreages.
And they sure as hell don't want chlorinated water--today used for irrigation of acreages--to also be filtered, which is what the $70 million borrowing referendum included.

"Garlick shouldn't give up his day job," sniffs Kia, adding "he'd never make it as a clairvoyant."

Not representing his constituents seems to have become Mayor Garlick's strong point.

"A pity that Victor Cumming didn't reside--and run for Mayor--in Coldstream," adds Kia.

Yup.
Six hundred twenty-five votes separated Cumming from candidate Mund for Vernon Mayor.

Directors Don't "Manage"

They acquiesce...

Originally submitted to The Morning Star as a letter to the editor, this letter is more appropriate for the blog, and was withdrawn.

Do people really believe that every little community in BC is suddenly filtering water to comply with the Water Act and new Health regulations to limit liability since Walkerton Ontario?  Ask Revelstoke and Kamloops how they got water treatment plants (albeit not filtration) when their residents rejected water referendums.

Whether it’s the rates charged for effluent—or potable—water in the North Okanagan, today’s issues have been building for years because Directors of the water administration of our North Okanagan Communities of Coldstream, Vernon, and Areas B & C through the Regional District do not direct, they acquiesce to bureaucrats.  And for acclaimed Coldstream mayor—and water advisory committee director—Garlick to now state that the water referendum is “educational” is a flagrant insult to all residents who are paying for it.

The problem is that Directors comprise an “Advisory” (vs. Management) Committee.  The first step always in effecting change is to ascertain what went wrong.  Because committee membership is chiefly tied to election terms (3 years; now 4), annexation disputes remove focus and don’t allow members to see beyond their elected term(s).  

Change the name from Advisory to Greater Vernon Management Committee; rewrite their mandate.   Directors need to veto plans, unlike this committee of “advisors” who never veto bureaucrats.

Forget consultants.  We have extremely well-paid professional engineers at GVW whose duties should be to actually design what our “management” committee members have agreed are the “best practices” idea for this area.  They get paid for those skills; not to hire consulting engineers.    

The second step is for Directors to realize that Councillor Kiss has the best practices, to TOTALLY separate water allocations from domestic/potable water.  Unchlorinated unfiltered raw water would be used for outdoor use (golf courses, parks, school playgrounds, turf farms, orchards and vineyards), which complies with the single category allocation they bought and paid for.  Councillor Kiss says the cost of expensive treatment would entirely disappear.

My little 9-hole golf course, Highlands, was built because I had a raw water (non potable) allocation from our 1,100 apple tree operation and no provision existed to sell it back if it wasn’t being used once farming was discontinued.  The golf course is now irrigated with chlorinated water—soon to be “filtered” too—because raw water wasn’t available after Duteau was built.  I was paying 500 per cent more for water, while today using less than 20 per cent of my paid-up allocation.  A 1,000 per cent increase since the orchard was planted.   Meanwhile GVW could re-sell my unused allocation to someone else! 

Only bureaucrats—free from requisite “direction” from directors—could have created that, and working backwards from the revenue they want, comprising myriad categories and six-pages of prices.  

"There could be 40 engineers working on this," offers Kia, "and it would only become a larger fiasco."
 

The guts to make hard decisions

...and intelligence.
Ask yourself who among your local candidates possesses those attributes.
Or who simply leans whichever way the wind blows that day.
Or which councillors and mayors believe everything bureaucrats say to further their agendas...because it's easier than challenging them.

J.V. Methot deserves accolades for his letter to the editor, published in the Morning Star today:

"...since 2004 we have ... been electing, appointing

and hiring all of the wrong people."

J.V. Methot

"Back on February 7, Gyula Kiss (Coldstream councillor) wrote you a letter outlining the area water plan history.

After reading this, I thought to myself that some of what he said must be wrong.  Nobody in their right mind would be stupid enough to change the plan we had in 2002 and 2004.

Well guess what -- $70 million more and counting and what have we really got?

Mr. Kiss, you are a voice crying in the wilderness.

You have known and stated all along the mess that's become of our present water plan but nobody was or is listening to you.  What a shame on us.

It's now quite plain to me, and I hope to a lot of other people, that since 2004 we have with a few exceptions, been electing, appointing and hiring all of the wrong people with the hope that they would use their God-given common sense to run this fabulous place we live in with a modicum of intelligence at least.  What's wrong with this picture?

Let's start with the next two elections -- civic and federal.

Try and elect people with the guts to make the hard decisions, which they won't be afraid to voice loud and clear, are truthful and honest, not prone to spin-doctoring and never use the phrase, "We're working on it," write all of their own material and tell it like it is, and not be afraid to rock the boat.

Let's hope that some people like that run for office and that we have the good sense to who who they are and elect them."

J.V. Methot

 

"Councillor Kiss deserves credit for not calling bureaucrats, colleagues, and the public stupid," offers Kia, "even though he'd be correct if he did."

Document reference:
2012 Master Water Plan
Financial Strategies to Support the 2012 Master Water Plan, 51 pages, by Consultants
Financial Plan, 21 pages, marked "Final"...(blog note:  oddly enough, the link failed...twice.  Hmmm.)

Right on, Maria!

If bureaucrats wag the tails of political dogs, what's amiss or missing when a politician or two cry foul?
When a politician or two go against the wishes of other politicians who approved the earlier plan?

You'd think bureaucrats would go out of their way to convince any dissenters that the status quo was indeed correct to have approved the earlier plan.

"...this plan is flawed and should be challenged" 

     Maria Besso, Coldstream councillor

 

What--or who--gives bureaucrats the audacity to refuse (imagine that!) the request of one or two elected officials who demand more information of the area's Master Water Plan?  When bureaucrats refuse to revisit a plan with a peer review...indeed even to attend a meeting for a Question and Answer session at an adjacent community's council meeting? 

Consultants, that's what.
And, likely, fear.
Fear that bureaucrats themselves, and other politicians on the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee--were incorrect in approving original consultants' plans in the first place.

Bureaucrats can't lose their jobs at the polls.
Bureaucrats will continue hiring consultants...perhaps even--as is suspected in this case--consultants that agree with their original position.

So, for any politician to--at the eleventh hour--question an approved multi-million dollar plan might be a sign of political suicide.
Or that the cream of the political crop has indeed risen to the top, given further study of the data that formulated the Master Water Plan.

Admittedly the above is a hell of a long intro...to the following Letter to the Editor by Coldstream Councillor Maria Besso (in support of Coldstream Councillor's Gyula Kiss' position).

First, Maria's questions to the technical experts at the Regional District of North Okanagan:

1.  Given that the water from Duteau Creek is much more expensive to treat than the Kal Lake water (about four times as expensive in the winter), and given that most of the water from the Duteau source is needed and used for agricultural irrigation, why does phase 1 of the new 2012 master water plan call for the planning and building of a huge capacity filtration plant at Duteau prior to doing filtration at Kalamalka Lake, when Kal Lake supplies 80 per cent of the domestic water supply for Greater Vernon?

2.  Could you please explain, and quantify the magnitude of the direct effect on residential, industrial, institutional, commercial and agricultural water rates if the relative distribution of expenses between the types of customers remains the same as it is now, and we incur the costs projected in the master water plan that has been approved by the (other) politicians?  

3.  Could you please clearly review, for the public, the timeline and expenditures that have been proposed in phase one of the 2012 MWP, for which they are being asked to endorse the borrowing referendum of $70 million dollars?


Now, Maria Besso's preamble to her three questions:

"I am writing in response to your article 'no peer review for water plan' in The Morning Star.  In my opinion, this is a very bad decision taken by the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee.

I understand that the politicians feel powerless to challenge a plan that has been put forward by technical experts.  But in my opinion, this plan is flawed and should be challenged.

Most people just want to know if there is going to be fresh, clean, safe drinking water when they turn on the tap, and how much will they pay for it.

As one reporter put it to me, "Just cut to the chase, how much is the new water rate?"

Well, after having watched the process for five years, and water rates climb every year, while domestic consumption goes down, and the water utility is left with a shortfall in revenue, I have started to think that this is the definition of insanity.  We do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

To have some influence on the cost of water, we have to start paying attention to what is in the plan.

If we proceed with the master water plan option that has been approved by GVAC, then we will need to borrow $70 million to pay for the projects in phase one of the plan.

In phase one, we will immediately start with plans to build a huge capacity (110 megalitres per day) filtration plant at Duteau Creek.  It will cost $26.5 million to build this filtration plant.

The Duteau plant treats water from the Aberdeen Plateau lakes.  These lakes draw from an abundant supply of water from a neighbouring watershed.

The quality of this water is yellow and full of organics.  Many will remember the yellow VID water we had prior to October 2010 when the Duteau plant first opened. 

We have come a long way since then, but it comes at a cost.

"In summer...64 Olympic-size pools per day.

In winter...we treat 2.4 Olympic-size pools per day.

The difference ... the irrigation water that we treat!"

Because most of the water that comes from Duteau was used for irrigation, and irrigation uses a lot of water at summer peak, we had to build a huge treatment plant to handle the peak demand, and treat all the water (irrigation and domestic water in the same pipes).

To illustrate the insanity, in the summer of 2011, we treated 160 megalitres of water per day at the Duteau plant (the equivalent of 64 Olympic-size pools per day).  By contrast, in the winter of 2011 when there was no irrigation, we treated six megalitres per day (the equivalent of 2.4 Olympic-size pools).  That means that 96 per cent of water went for irrigation.

"...then filter Kal first." 

Even with some expensive pipe separation, this plan will have us using the majority of the water we filter for irrigation of fields.  This is wrong.

Also by building the filtration plant at Duteau as a first step, we are again building a huge, expensive, over-capacity plant, while Kal Lake water remains the cheaper to clean, more desirable source of domestic drinking water. 

Kal Lake water is cheaper to filger because it's cleaner to begin with, so if that continues to be the IHA (Interior Health) requirement, and we cannot get around it, then filter Kal first.

Some Coldstream politicans have asked for a third-party peer review.

Since this review is not forthcoming, and a borrowing referendum has been approved by GVAC, I feel that the public will want, and need, many questions answered to help make up their minds."

Maria Besso, Coldstream councillor

 

 Note:  The City of Kelowna has applied for Filtration Deferral here. 
 Note:  An interesting view, author Jim Cooperman, re Vernon's possible need for Shuswap water is here:
 Note:  A virtual tour of the Duteau water treatment plant is here.

  
"If this is phase 1, the concept of phase 2 scares the hell out of me," intones Kia.


Whatever happens, a big thanks to Maria Besso and Gyula Kiss, councillors at District of Coldstream, for having the chutzpah to question not only their counterparts, but consultants and bureaucrats (both at RDNO and Interior Health).

Where the hell is Coldstream Mayor, Jim Garlick's push to have this insane plan corrected/revised/stopped????

After all, he's been on GVAC all along.