It's How You Look At It

...that provides relevant information.

This from a friend:

"Aberdeen reservoir levels are way above average

 so it doesn't matter much with a slightly lower snowpack.

 The mid level snowpack at Duteau is at 105% though,

 funny how that doesn't make the news locally,

 just when there's drama

 and them (Greater Vernon Water)

 trying to justify jacked up rates

 to make us conserve more to save it all."

Then the OBWB:

"...The numbers aren't great..."

The Okanagan Basin Water Board is today quoted in the Morning Star reporting:  "...The numbers aren't great..." because seasonally dry conditions have resulted in lower than normal snowpack at high elevations despite the cold conditions this winter.

"86 per cent of normal snowfall levels for the entire Okanagan."

The B.C. River Forecast Centre report stated that increased snow at low elevations plays a limited role in seasonal flood risk or water supply into the spring and summer.  Their study indicates 86 per cent of normal snowfall levels for the entire Okanagan.

"So what's 'normal'?," Kia would've asked, "snow up to the windowsills?"

14 per cent lower than a normal snow-up-to-the-truckhood level? 



 

Resplendent Rotarians

It wasn't because the article was about water that I thought of the Master Water Plan Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings when I read the history of the Klamath Water Wars.
Or maybe it was.

But something other than water connected the two.
Or, more accurately, separated the two events.

Before you "x" out of here and return to TV, read the compelling story on Water Wars link.  An excellent story in the publication Rotarian, December 2016 issue, "Common Ground", healing a troubled Oregon community at odds over water.

Apart from the distance that separated the Klamath Oregon area from the North Okanagan, the glaring separation for me was what a Rotarian provided Oregon...trust.

The Rotarian organization has something called The Four-Way Test, and it goes like this:

(1)    Is it the TRUTH?

(2)    Is it FAIR to all concerned?

(3)    Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

(4)     Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

With this entrenched tenet, Rotarian Jim Root waded deeper into the human community that was his home, and he got committee members together, many of whom had become enemies during the water issues. 

Jim--at the first meeting, a breakfast meeting--set up a whiteboard that stated:

Develop trust.

Actions consider the entire community.

Balance flow of water in and out of the community.

Improve water quality considering "good ecology equals good economy."

The bureaucratic/political system (polar opposite to the Rotarian Way)

While Jim Root wasn't a miracle worker, he did get people to continue talking, and venting too.
He said they'd take a time out after venting and then start again.

All the while my mind returned to the four-way test and whether it should have been a prerequisite during the Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings. 

Would the four-way test have changed things with the "citizen review" of the master water plan? 

While reading the story, I couldn't help but think that our area's water stakeholder advisory committee meetings, (many local government meetings for that matter...yes, having attended many!) are just sedentary exercises, never resembling the potential to become kinetic...living, functional things, leave-the-meeting-feeling-good type of events.
Even on good days.

It was all bureaucratic and political machinations and manipulation of the public!

So much for "Is it the TRUTH?" and "Develop Trust".

Greater Vernon Water customers--residents--didn't believe they were hearing the truth either in the meetings or in the sparse follow-up newspaper stories.  So no-one was surprised that trust didn't develop.

So, folks, next time there's an important meeting--or an election--invite a Rotarian.

Maybe even to run as Mayor(s).
That'd be very hopeful.


As an aside (and he'll probably be angry if he learns of this...)

Yes, I receive the truth from him.

Fear-mongering Hiatus?

This summer's ample precipitation in the North Okanagan was certainly welcome.

For more reasons than to water our lawns and gardens!

Many hoped it would, frankly, shut up the OBWB's incessant yammering about climate change and drought.

More than one Greater Vernon Water customer mentioned "this summer's frequent rain should keep the OBWB's mouths shut for a change," the individual clearly more than a tad weary of hearing their "doom and gloom stories". 

Many residents recall a water consultant's comment--"you're blessed with loads/tons of water"--during the lengthy Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings during the Master Water Plan Review--yet nothing appeared to dissuade the OBWB's fear-mongering.

That remains true today in mid-September as the following excerpts of a Morning Star story from September 14th prove.  But this time it's a Black Press story (from one of their 112 newspapers, BP also owns the Morning Star), penned by a Kevin Parnell, headed "OBWB urges water planning". 

"...and recognize that our actions do affect surrounding watersheds in Canada, the U.S. and the world."

"...in the Okanagan...we're trying to get ahead of the problems."

"Warwick Sears (OBWB head) has considered the state of the problem in the Okanagan compared to what is happening in California."

"Use (the problems) as an example of what can happen if you don't plan properly.  We're trying to build relationships with stakeholders and different levels of government so when a crisis does happen we are a well-oiled machine."

Build relationships?
Surrounding watersheds ... the U.S. and the world?
Huh?
Are the OBWB's ambitions a bit majestic? 

Not a mention in the story about gouging residents until they can't afford to do their young family's laundry.

Not a mention in the story about bureaucrats setting unrealistic revenue goals from a decidedly-management-heavy water authority, many of whom are engineers (yet they hire engineering consultants versus using their own professional skills!)

Not a mention that the Okanagan Basin Water Board is simply yet one more arm's-length appointed committee, who themselves (~50 people?) garner more than $600,000 annually from the Regional District of North Okanagan's for wages/benefits...all of which is money paid by residents, whether via taxes or water rates.

Complicit among Greater Vernon elected officials--including two mayors--are the bureaucrats of the Greater Vernon Water Authority who appear to have forgotten to update the public on reservoir levels at the Duteau site...since May!

Well, an updated reservoir level graph has been obtained by Vernon councillor Bob Spiers, and residents thank him for spurring the bean-counters into action...

(click the illustration to enlarge).

A commenter stated: "...they were all paranoid this spring for nothing."

Indeed.
But it appeared to be good press for them not just in the North Okanagan, but in Canada, the U.S. and the world."

Cue the cheering.
And before the scene fades to black, Kia's comment is noteworthy.


"A well-oiled machine?", queries Kia, concluding "nope, the OBWB is a well-greased machine, greased with OUR money."

We didn't vote the OBWB in.
And we can't vote the OBWB out.

But there are others we can, including provincial MLA Eric Foster.

And others who believe water runs uphill.

The Sham of "Conserving"

All it leads to is an increased unit cost to you, the purchaser.

Whether it's fuelled by outright lies--as is now known to be the case in the B.C. government's "need" for Hydro's Site C--or unbelievable bureaucratic biases whose strategy to have long-sitting politicians save face--who approved the Master Water Plan in the first place--it's become a contagion.

Government lies.
Bureaucratic lies.
Consultants manipulating data.
Arm's-length appointed committees--over whom the electorate has no control--making the rules.  Cases in point:  the B.C. Utilities Commission, to whom Hydro goes for approval of new rates, and the Okanagan Basin Water Board, who now issue provincial grants to municipalities!

Both the BCUC and OBWB have focused on conservation as a tool to conserve (BCUC) electricity and (OBWB) water.

While this blog would never ever promote wasting either water or electricity, get a load of this story in the local Morning Star today...and think of your Greater Vernon water rate increases while reading.

Its title tells it all:  "B.C. Hydro rates rise as demand slows.  (excerpts only, highlighting by blog author)

B.C. Hydro is going ahead with its planned four per cent rate increase this year and deferring more debt to future years as it revises its electricity demand forecast downward. 

The provincially-owned utility has not asked (BCUC!) for an increase in its government-imposed rate plan despite a revised demand forecast with $3.5 billion less revenue over the next 10 years.  Hydro has filed a three-year plan with the BCUC that increases rates 4, 3.5 and 3.0 per cent in the next 3 years.

That's a 10.5 per cent increase over the additional new rates we've been paying for the last four or five years! 

B.C. Hydro is seeing lower revenues (does that sound familiar, GVW water customers????) due to two warm winters and downturns in mining and forest products.

Critic Adrian Dix states Hydro should have added a sixth turbine to the Revelstoke dam (at $450 million) versus forging ahead with the Site C dam ... a $9 billion project!"


Blog readers...for a wayyyyy more accurate--and damaging expose of B.C. Hydro, and how the B.C. Liberals have been draining its coffers dry (now ICBC isn't the sole victim!), you simply must read this Site C article by blogger extraordinaire, Norman Farrell. 

Then go back to his Home Page here to learn the ongoing deceptions of the B.C. Liberals.

"There's no antibiotic that'll rid voters of the lies contagion," says Kia, adding "look at how it's spreading among politicians and the bureaucracy."

Indeed.
Sadly, they're learning from one another.

Lies, Lies, Everywhere Lies...

Kevin's Correct!

As reported today in Bob Spiers' blog and the Morning Star, Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton is not impressed with the Okanagan Basin Water Board which is urging residents to conserve water now in case of drought this summer.

"There isn’t a shortage of water now,” he said, adding that there isn’t a need to cut back on water use. “I am disappointed to hear their advertisements when there isn’t a drought right now.” 

Right on, Kevin!
Exactly!

The rest of Richard Rolke's story is:

Lumby officials fear the community could be washed out again. The village has sent a letter to the Regional District of North Okanagan protesting the release of water from Aberdeen Plateau reservoirs that can lead to flooding in the downtown core.

“The regional district has the ability to help mitigate the flooding situation,” said Mayor Kevin Acton. “They need to follow best practises so they don’t cause flooding.”   In 2013, significant flooding swamped businesses and homes right in the middle of Lumby.   And sandbags have been put in place this year in case the creeks overflow their banks.

“The high-altitude melt comes in mid-June and if there is rain, it could be a perfect storm,” said Acton.

“We’d like the regional district to make an educated guess on how to get the reservoirs to the top without them spilling over and causing.”

RDNO has previously stated it can’t let water out of the reservoirs early, because, depending on weather conditions in the early spring, that water may be needed for domestic supply in the summer. It also states that snowmelt spilling over reservoirs and into creeks is a natural process.  

Beyond RDNO, Acton is not impressed with the Okanagan Basin Water Board which is urging residents to conserve water now in case of drought this summer. “There isn’t a shortage of water now,” he said, adding that there isn’t a need to cut back on water use. “I am disappointed to hear their advertisements when there isn’t a drought right now.”

"The big problem is asking the regional district to make an 'educated guess'," says Kia, adding "we haven't seen that occurring historically."

And a high-altitude melt in mid-June?
It's probably half gone already.

Don't forget, folks:

  The more water you conserve, the more you pay

 for each cubic metre of it.

Also don't forget what the consultant said during one of the SAC meetings:

  "You are blessed with loads of water..." 

It's just a matter of bureaucrats and biased-to-the-nines elected officials letting us use it!

When is that next election????

Dispensable Dam

Today's question:

"Since Aberdeen Reservoir's water capacity is greater than the maximum used over any of the last four years--and agriculture's consumption 'is not expected to increase' (Greater Vernon Water officials)--why is GVW raising the height of Aberdeen dam at all?
Let alone by 4 metres?" 

True or False:  (select one, or?)

1.  Agricultural consumption will increase;
2.  Unaccounted for water will remain unaccounted for in years to come;
3.  Outflow (production) numbers are incorrect;
4.  Dirt bikers attempt the higher sides, albeit only once;
5.  Fisheries want to confine to uplands a new species of jumping fish;
6.  Cheaper than giving away sand and sandbags downstream every year;
7.  Bureaucrats want it visible from space; 
8.  Mussels re-categorized to marsupial species;
9.  GVW flies in the face of climate change, as upland water sources will be the first affected-and more drastically-than valley-bottom lakes.
10.  Other:  _____________________

Seriously...

When it came to planning the size of the treatment plant at Duteau Creek, unrealistic "projected" numbers -- compared to actual -- were used, generally averaging 50 per cent incorrect, as shown:

(click table to enlarge)

Any way you slice it, increasing the dam height isn't needed.
We're only using 77 per cent of the existing reservoir's capacity as it is!
 
Especially since domestic customers are obeying the Okanagan Basin Water Board's directive.


"I'd have opted for mussels jumping a la kangaroos," offers Kia.

Agriculture is increasing its consumption, as evidenced. 

GVW should really study the impact of climate change on upland water sources.