Better water quality comes with wave of bills

Don Plant 2009-01-10 Kelowna Daily Courier:
This is one big gulp thousands of Okanagan homeowners will find hard to swallow. Interior Health has set rigorous standards for drinking-water quality so people don‘t get sick. To comply with the new requirements, Valley water utilities must spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build treatment systems and install new distribution lines. The goal is to reduce the number of boil-water notices and water-quality advisories that utilities issue every time the tap water gets cloudy. Residents have become fatigued by the warnings. Some ignore them while others call their provider in a panic.

In Vernon, authorities issue an average of three boil-water notices a year, each lasting up to three weeks, and numerous advisories. “There are so many water-quality advisories going on out there, they don‘t really know whether they‘re important or not,” said Al Cotsworth, manager of water for Greater Vernon Water. “There‘s confusion and concern among seniors. They hear these advisories and say, ’What‘s wrong with our water?‘ . . . I‘m sure the bottled-water industry and the home water-treatment industry have benefited greatly from this.”

Residents aren‘t the only ones shelling out cash after the water turbidity (muddiness) triggers a warning. The Central Okanagan school district has shut off the fountains at three schools and budgeted $35,000 this year to give students and staff bottled water instead. South Kelowna Elementary has relied on bottled water for three years. Many students bring tap water from home in bottles filled with the same water the school forbids them to drink. If they don‘t clean the bottles, pathogens can develop and make the water worse. “There‘s a potential that kids with bacteria-ridden bottles are filling them up and there‘s cross-contamination,” said principal James Minkus. “I don‘t see a solution.”

Kelowna and Vernon face the heftiest bills to renovate their water systems – $180 million and more than $100 million, respectively. The South East Kelowna Irrigation District, now considering $18 million worth of upgrades, estimates its 2,000 customers will have to pay nearly $1,000 more a year than the $348 in tolls and taxes they now remit. The project calls for developing two new wells dedicated to domestic water, 85 kilometres of new pipeline and a pump system to push the water to a higher elevation so all residents, including orchardists, receive the same drinking water. Manager Toby Pike agrees the quality must improve, but wonders how he‘ll provide potable water to hundreds of customers living on large acreages.“We argue there should be recognition from senior government that there‘s a burden and there should be compensation to help out rural, agricultural areas,” he said. All five Kelowna water utilities face substantial costs to meet the regulatory demands.

In Vernon, the regional district has completed the first phase of the Mission Hill water-treatment plant for $7 million. It plans to build a new water plant and distribution system at Duteau Creek for another $45 million. Other Okanagan communities are ahead of the game. Penticton built a water-treatment plant and pump station in 1996 for $20 million. The same infrastructure today, which supplies 9,000 connections, would cost $50 million. “Prices have tripled since then,” said Brent Edge, the city‘s water-quality supervisor. “We‘re lucky we put it in when we did.” Summerland completed its $20-million water-treatment plant a year ago to bring the district in line with IH regulations. The plant‘s capacity of 74 million litres a day is sufficient most of the year. Officials still issue water advisories in the summer, when agricultural irrigation pushes daily demand to 120 million litres. The district plans to spend another $4 million on new piping to separate agricultural water from domestic users. For now, the 4,500 customers spend $285 a year on a parcel tax to pay for the infrastructure over 20 years.

Westbank Irrigation District opened its new Powers Creek water-treatment plant two years ago on a $19-million budget. The district‘s 5,300 customers paid for the system without a dollar in government grants. “Our water is better than bottled water because of the (IH) regulations,” said manager Brian Jamieson. “We have full filtration.” Many question Interior Health‘s concern about turbidity and the high cost of keeping the water clear. Reservoirs often get muddy during spring runoff. Just because the tap water‘s a little opaque doesn‘t mean it‘s unsafe to drink, said Pike. “Where‘s the risk? We‘ve never had a water-borne disease. Turbidity is not a sound indicator of risk,” he said. A technical committee of water experts agrees. Acting on complaints from water providers, Health Minister George Abbott struck the committee to examine turbidity‘s effect on water quality. The conclusion: by itself, turbidity fails to explain the occurrence of infectious diseases.

The province is now developing a framework that takes a broader look at what‘s in a glass of water, said Dr. Andrew Larder, senior medical health officer with IH. Before they issue a health warning, authorities would take into account whether bacteria are detected, for example, or a system‘s disinfection process is compromised. “We‘ll have to take more into consideration than a turbidity number,” he said. “We‘re committed to using that framework.” The framework, which will be provincewide, should come into effect before spring runoff. Larder can‘t predict whether it will influence how much utilities spend to improve their water systems or whether it reduces water-borne illnesses. There‘s no way to measure how much gastrointestinal illness relates to a water supply, he said. However, communities that improved their water treatment have seen illness rates decline. “It has to be a good thing,” Larder said. “Even if there are significant increases in water rates, the cost per litre is still much cheaper than bottled water. “I‘d like every water system to provide treated and safe water tomorrow. Each (utility) has to work out how quickly. Taking 20 to 30 years to do it is clearly not acceptable.”