B.C.'s new Water Sustainability Act

...and unlike GVW bureaucrats and their GVAC "enablers", guess what it includes as Agricultural Irrigation?

"Agriculture (the Water Act definition includes irrigation, greenhouses, kennels, nurseries, “watering of golf courses, ornamental gardens, parks or similar properties”)"

 (underscore:  blog author)

Did you hear that, GVW???

GVW's officials do not include golf course irrigation as agricultural!  
Simply put, that places them askew with British Columbia's new Water Sustainability Act, Bill 18, which passed.

Even SEKID, the South East Kelowna Irrigation District got it right, including golf course irrigation as Agricultural.

The list of the Water Sustainability Act's new 2016 Water Fees and Rentals is here. 

The full text of Bill 18 is here.

"Are you listening, GVW officials?" asks Kia.

...you just know somebody's going to get screwed if this sign is at RDNO!

If GVW isn't listening--or those elected officials on GVAC (including The Board) who presumably are their bosses--it's probably time to activate the lawyer again.

Thanks to RDNO, he's on speed dial. 


For a view on Westcoast Environmental Law's perceptions of the act's Strengths and Weaknesses,  click here.

No Sense At All

"It doesn't make sense to chlorinate all the water," said Toby Pike, manager of South East Kelowna Irrigation District in a CHBC-TV interview this week.

No, of course it doesn't, Mr. Pike.

But that is the crux of what we in the North Okanagan face with Greater Vernon Water's continued emphasis on the shallow slough called Duteau Creek as a second water source for Vernon and area.

In summer, fully 96 per cent of Duteau Creek's chlorinated water goes on the ground...to irrigate farmer's fields, golf courses, and acreages.

Only 4 per cent of Duteau's chlorinated water is destined for domestic--potable--use.
But the bureaucrats at Greater Vernon Water--and their Greater Vernon Advisory Committee enablers--were determined that all Duteau Creek water would be chlorinated.  So it is.

GVW's procedure...

The SEKID area technically had the same problem our area had.

A relatively small amount of domestic water was supplied through irrigation pipes...unchlorinated water.

The SEKID plan is to do total separation with domestic customers receiving well water.
Untreated water will be used for irrigation through the existing system.

"How come this simple--albeit expensive--solution did not gain support in our neck of the woods?", asks an anonymous individual.  "If we must spend money, spend it on the right projects."

"Instead, Greater Vernon Water wasted a lot of taxpayer dollars," Kia says.

GVW is good at that.
And charging horrendous water rates to all residents.

Location, Location, Location

Who would've thought the realty tenet of Location, Location, Location would include what bureaucrats you're saddled with?

And there are definitely "good" and "bad" bureaucrats.

So it's with considerable displeasure that I now realize Highlands Golf should've been built 15 years ago in the South East Kelowna Irrigation District (SEKID) as opposed to Buchanan Road in Coldstream.

Why?

Because the bad bureaucrats are here at Greater Vernon Water at the Regional District of North Okanagan.

And their influence--indeed effect--on area golf courses is in direct opposition to their good counterparts at SEKID.

Look at this example from SEKID's (from page 11 of 46) Water Rate Review concerning which properties/businesses are eligible for the Agricultural water rate:

"Agriculture:      Means the beneficial use of water for crops, gardens, parks and golf courses which are also defined as Grade A lots."  (underlining: blog author)


Here in the North Okanagan...under the Greater Vernon Water bureaucracy?
Nope.
No such luck.

GVW bureaucrats--condoned by the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee's elected officials (who supposedly provide "oversight" and "approvals")--don't understand that the word Irrigators defines the beneficial use.

But SEKID officials did.

Whether you're a turf farm, an orchard, a community park, or a golf course....irrigation is paramount to your activity.

Lucky golf courses under SEKID!
You don't have to have a math major to see the disparity in these two examples:
Tower Ranch Golf Course is easily 15 times larger in size than Highlands, yet they pay just over twice what Highlands pays GVW annually for water!

Harvest Golf Course is, at a guess of property size, 20-25 times the size of Highlands Golf, and they pay five times what Highlands pays GVW annually for water!

Lucky, aren't they?

Unlucky, aren't we to have located here?
Yup...  

Careful where you buy or build your business...

"More socialists in the bureaucracy here," empathizes Kia.


So much for procedural fairness.
It's not the first time that's been lacking at RDNO.