Defusing Vernon's "ticking time bomb"

By Vernon Daily Courier staff http://www.dailycourier.ca/
Hoping to avoid further contamination of Okanagan Lake, the City of Vernon is hoping to get more Okanagan Landing residents off septic and on to the sewer system. Municipal engineer Rob Dickinson said the city is working on a report to determine the level of phosphorous that is leaching into Okanagan Lake from the area’s septic fields. The most recent report which was completed in 1999 showed high levels along the lakeshore.Dickinson said high phosphorous levels coupled with increased nitrogen increases algae, decreases oxygen and kills fish. He said it’s not single septic fields on large lots that are the problem, it’s the concentration of so many systems in a single area. “These are working septic fields that are leaching into Okanagan Landing now,” he said. “We could be looking at the slow contamination of the lake.” While some septic fields could take hundreds or thousands of years to leach toward the lake, Dickinson said others could start contaminating the lake within the next decade. But fields that take 100 years to leach into the groundwater, would contaminate the water for another 100 years. “It’s like a ticking time bomb,” Dickinson said. With the possibility of a $2 million infrastructure grant to pay for sewer connections, he said the city is hurrying to complete an engineering plan to hook up five neighbourhoods. “If we complete an engineering study it gives us a better chance to get this grant,” he said. “Otherwise we would look at it in more detail. The grant is paid for by the federal government but the provincial government hands out the money. Dickinson said that the deadline for applications is in the fall, which is why the city is pressing ahead with design plans to hook up the Delcliffe,Whitepoint, Smith, Peters and Tronson specified areas to city sewers. The initial estimate of the cost of construction is $2.5 million but Dickinson said that number could be on the low end. Each area will be given the option to choose between the traditional system and the grinder system that went in along Okanagan Landing Road. If more areas choose the traditional system the costs would double, he said. “Hopefully, we can get a grant so these areas will look at a substantial subsidy,” he said. Vernon is not alone in its efforts to phase out septic systems around the lake. With so much opposition to the sewer line along Okanagan Landing Road this summer, Dickinson said the city’s next round of sewer construction will be to areas which have expressed an interest in getting connected. There is one other Okanagan community that has had the same challenges with septic contamination. Dickinson said that Kelowna has been similarly working hard to connect residents to sewer.