Frustrations flow over slow Duteau process

By Jennifer Smith - Vernon Morning Star Published: July 18, 2008

The slow process of building a facility that will finally improve local drinking water has been a widespread annoyance. It’s frustrating for those Duteau Creek water customers eagerly awaiting to be rid of their yellowish-brown water, for local politicians and for project manager Bill Di Pasquale. “It’s been a very frustrating nine months,” said Di Pasquale, while updating Greater Vernon Services Committee members Thursday. Work on the actual multi-million dollar water treatment plant hasn’t even begun. The most recent hold-up is due to an environmental assessment which the project is waiting for approvals from. “We’re six to eight months behind schedule purely because of that,” said Di Pasquale. One of the hold-ups was due to a slow process in receiving approvals from the Splatsin and Okanagan Indian bands.

Now the project is waiting on assessment approvals from Western Economic Diversification Canada, which in turn is waiting for federal approvals from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Environment Ministry. “We’re losing time, we are behind schedule and costs are a problem with them escalating,” said Di Pasquale. “I’m still hopeful this thing may come together and we can tender this by the end of August,” he said. If that is the case then a contract will likely be awarded by the end of September and construction could commence before winter. Another slow-moving water-related project is also causing frustration.

In looking at alternatives for the Duteau Creek water source project, delays have been an ongoing occurrence. The project aims at developing the Duteau watershed to optimize water availability for consumption, to better withstand a period of dry weather, climate change effects and accommodate growth. The two options being considered are: raising the existing Aberdeen Lake dam by two metres or diverting runoff from the Flyfish Lakes area to either Grizzly or Haddo lake. Gerry Lake is another possible option. While the project is still in its preliminary stages, the engineering work has seen numerous delays. “Why can’t we hold these people’s feet to the fire and get this job done?” questioned BX-Silver Star director Stan Field. “This is really not acceptable that we continually have delays.”Due to the number of engineers working on examining the options, BX-Swan Lake director Cliff Kanester added: “I wonder if it’s because it takes more than one engineer to screw in a light bulb.”