Water alternatives sought

Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: May 11, 2010 7:00 PM

Some officials insist Greater Vernon must tap into alternatives if water is to be conserved. Vernon council has discussed the current stage three water restrictions initiated by the North Okanagan Regional District, and there’s a growing push to consider ways to save water for future needs. “There’s a lot of good ideas and practises out there,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. One concept that Lippert favours is expanding the city’s treated effluent program to irrigate parks and other areas. “We irrigate three golf courses and a tree farm now.” Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe wants to see a shift from traditional sprinklers to drip irrigation, which uses less water and is more efficient. “Clearly we’re in an area that’s dry and we need a plan in place,” she said.

NORD has resurrected its drought management team and it will be expanded to include representation from a number of stakeholders in the community. “The existing team we had was not broad enough,” said Coun. Patrick Nicol, adding that the new committee will include participants from business. Stage three water restrictions remain in place, but on May 5, the NORD board decided to defer enforcement for two weeks pending further evaluation of water quantity in the area. After that time, it’s not known if stage three restrictions will continue for all of the Greater Vernon utility or only a portion of it. “The water in the upland reservoirs (Duteau Creek) has been very low,” said Lippert. “But there’s more than adequate water in Kalamalka Lake. The restrictions shouldn’t be across the whole system.” Lippert is also concerned that the utility could lose about $1.5 million in revenue if the restrictions remain in place for all customers no matter their source.

While stage three restrictions are not being enforced until at least May 19, residents are being asked to conserve water. Under stage three, residential users can only use manual sprinklers once a week between 6 and 10 a.m. or 7 p.m. and midnight. Automatic underground sprinklers are allowed between midnight and 6 a.m. Addresses ending in 0 can water on Saturday, 1 on Sunday, 2 on Monday, 3 or 4 on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday, 6 or 7 on Thursday and 8 or 9 Friday. Washing driveways and sidewalks for aesthetic purposes is prohibited, and there’s no washing of vehicles except for safety (windows, lights and licenses only) using a bucket with a cloth. Refilling of pools and garden ponds is not allowed. Hand-held sprinkling is allowed at any time.

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Hung out to dry: Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: May 11, 2010 7:00 PM

Some politicians would have the public and the media believe they were caught off guard by stage three water restrictions in Greater Vernon, and that North Okanagan Regional District staff just pushed ahead arbitrarily. However, one needs to go back to the regular board meeting of April 21 to get a sense of what actually led to the crackdown on water use. As part of the agenda, utility manager Al Cotsworth, and Arnold Badke, general manager of engineering, presented a lengthy report on snowpack/reservoir levels. According to my notes, they didn’t mince words when it came to pending drought conditions and the actions required to pull Greater Vernon through a dry season. “We’re so close to level three right now that that should be implemented,” said Badke. “We’re prepared to go immediately to stage three.” Through power point and a verbal presentation, the politicians were also provided with details on what stage three rules would mean for residents, businesses and farmers.

“Refilling will be prohibited for pools,” said Renee Clark, water quality senior technologist. There was almost no discussion among the elected officials about the restrictions and none about the possible negative implications to residents, businesses or utility rates. The following motion was unanimously approved by directors: “That the general manager of engineering and the Greater Vernon water manager be directed to institute water restrictions as contained in the drought management plan as necessary.” In layman’s terms, the board gave staff the authority to take whatever measures are necessary to preserve water stocks so we can flush our toilets later this year.

Of course some confusion arose as restrictions regarding pools went from simply not being able to top them up on April 21 to an outright ban on filling pools April 23. That may leave some with the impression that staff was just flying by the seat of its pants, but I believe it had more to do with the unprecedented nature of the situation facing us. Stage three has never been implemented this early before, and tweaking the restrictions may be necessary based on evolving data on reservoir levels and what the weather does. But the bottom line is that the NORD board — our elected representatives — had given staff the ability to take action, and the information regarding restrictions — including pools — was known. But deflecting criticism is a game as old as politics itself and some board members started changing their tune as soon as public complaints about pools began to boil over. Staff were presented as the ones to blame.

Obviously implementation of stage three rules could have been handled differently. Yes, there could have been a grace period so residents could adjust to the restrictions and do what they need to, whether it’s filling pools or planting turf. Certainly there could have been consultation with the impacted businesses. Hindsight, of course, is a wonderful thing, but the reality is that NORD employees were following the orders of their political masters, and when push got to shove, some of the bosses hung their staff out to dry.