Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM Tuesday, 12 February 2013 06:01
You're going to be hearing a lot about Greater Vernon's Master Water Plan the next while. It's a 100 million dollar-plus plan for future water projects, being updated for the first time in nine years. Greater Vernon Advisory Committee director Jim Garlick says the review is mandated by Interior Health. "We have a deadline to meet and if we don't meet it we have been told in a letter that we would face fines of $200,000 a day and possible imprisonment. We don't know how that works." RDNO's Engineering GM Dale McTaggert says one big change from the previous plan is that construction costs have gone up 200 to-300 percent since 2004, impacting the feasibility of certain projects. GVAC chair Mike Macnabb says as they map out what's needed in the master water plan, they're also discussing how best to separate the domestic and irrigation supplies. He says continuing to use treated water for agriculture is expensive, and not sustainable. "We're trying to take the load off of, ultimately, the domestic water use, because that's our limit to growth really. What water have we got?" Macnabb says they want to avoid what happened a couple summers ago where the Duteau Creek treatment plant, which provides 70 percent of local water, was running at full capacity, to meet the demand. GVAC will be holding special meetings February 21 and 28th which are open to the public, to discuss the water plan, with a goal to get it approved by the RDNO board by May 1.
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