Water Supply On The Rise

Peter McIntyre Wednesday, 02 June 2010 15:10107.5 KISFM

It's still at an all time low for this time of year, but Greater Vernon's water supply continues to improve. The regional district's engineering manager Arnold Badke says the wet weather has help bring the Duteau reservoir levels to within six percent of the previous record low, set last year. "We're storing about 12,800 mega liters and our total storage is about 18,000 so we're still below that total but we're coming very close to our previous low right now, within about 600 mega liters It's come up very fast in the last two weeks because of the rain and reduced use of water." Badke says the levels continue to call for stage 2 water restrictions, but says they may have to return to stage 3 in the summer. "The next issue is as the curve turns (levels go down) in July and August, we may have to go back to stage 3 at that point."He says the levels of Kalamalka and Okanagan lakes is looking "pretty good." "Okanagan Lake is above last year's level now, and Kal Lake is coming up too, so I think we've come up to an acceptable level that we're not concerned for the whole summer on those two lakes." Meantime, Badke told a special meeting of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee the new $29 million Duteau Creek Treatment Plant near Lavington should be completed by July, and in operation by this fall.