Victor Cumming made his position clear.
“As mayor of Vernon, I can’t risk Kal Lake. I cannot vote for things that put Kal Lake water at further risk at this time,” Cumming said Wednesday, July 29, appearing by video in a special meeting between local officials tasked with getting the most out of a relative trickle of water at their disposal.
The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) headquarters had the feel of a war room Wednesday evening as the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee hashed out the area’s drought situation over more than two and a half hours.
On the table was a proposal from two local orchardists to drill three wells into Coldstream aquifer as a means of accessing water to keep their trees alive amid Stage 3 water restrictions and a 70 per cent reduction in agricultural water allocations. The orchardists, David Geen and John Byland, had agreed to pay for the well infrastructure and turn it over to Greater Vernon Water at the end of a 24-month use period. Their hope is to take significant pressure off of other water sources agriculturalists rely on by 2027, while benefitting their own operations in the short term.
Regional district staff, however, had strong concerns about the proposal due to a recent preliminary study that found a likely meaningful connection between the aquifer and Kalamalka Lake.
Groundwater in the Coldstream Valley is connected to the water supply that supports the lake either directly or through flows into Coldstream Creek, according to an RDNO press release issued a day after the GVAC meeting.
“These findings come at a time when Kalamalka Lake is experiencing historically low water levels, prompting Greater Vernon Water staff to take a precautionary approach while additional research is completed,” the press release states.
Staff have recommended that the province not approve the new groundwater wells the orchardists have proposed, or any others within the Coldstream Valley, until more information is available about the potential impacts of groundwater withdrawals on the water supplies that flow to Kalamalka Lake, a key drinking water source for Greater Vernon residents.
GVAC directors supported staff’s recommendation with a motion that was only opposed by director Tom Ouchi, the committee’s agricultural representative, who pressed his fellow committee members on the need to support farmers and orchardists in as many ways as possible during this drought.
“We as a community … have to look at this and say, do we really want farming or not? Because the decision we’re making here today does not support that,” Ouchi said.
“We have an applicant that’s putting money into dropping these wells and bringing water into the system, a new supply. And possibly we can use this as a template to use that water in different wells on an emergency basis on a short-term plan. And we’re basically telling them, no, we don’t support you, we don’t support that. And I think that’s quite frankly shocking,” Ouchi continued.
Director Ruth Hoyte said there is a need to balance the “ridiculously low” levels in Kal Lake with the agriculturalists in the area who are “absolutely desperate” for water.
On the whole, GVAC was ultimately of the opinion that drilling into the aquifer could jeopardize Kal Lake, and that was a bridge too far for most of the directors.
Directors Jim Garlick and Brian Guy both said the issue is “out of our lane,” suggesting GVAC is not in a place to green-light the wells, and it should be left to scientists to examine the issue and to the province to ultimately grant or not grant a temporary use permit to the orchardists for the wells.
“We don’t have any jurisdiction, we don’t have any authority to deal with the technical matters,” Guy said. “That’s the (Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship’s) responsibility.”
Garlick took a quick survey of the room and noted few people in attendance. He said that would change in a hurry if the domestic water supply were to be threatened and residents were asked to only shower twice a week, as an example of what he said could potentially happen.
“If we head into problems with our domestic supply in the future, it’ll be much more crowded in this room,” Garlick said. “I think it behooves us to be cautious on this.”
Agriculturalists unhappy with decision
Geen and Byland’s proposed course of action took a significant blow Wednesday when GVAC chose not to endorse their plans.
“The likelihood or possibility of getting the wells in operation this year is gone, I would say,” Geen told The Morning Star after the meeting. “I think their endorsement might have moved it along, but that clearly wasn’t in the cards.”
Geen and Byland have already invested resources into the project. They’ve drilled the three wells, which Geen said is the first step that needed to take place before applying for a licence to use them, as they need to first demonstrate that the wells are viable.
When asked how confident he is that Kal Lake would not be adversely affected by his project, Geen pointed to the province’s granting of a water licence for the aquifer to Greater Vernon Water for 8,000 megalitres of water.
“If they had felt it was not safe to do so, they wouldn’t have granted the licence,” Geen said. “They wouldn’t have done it without confidence that it could safely be done.”
Geen said this new licence, received between Geen and Byland’s first pitch on July 8 and GVAC’s July 29 meeting, is for agricultural water use, not domestic.
“Those are not interchangeable,” he said.
Geen said it was “disappointing” to see “that type of very open lack of regard for agriculture in this community” from the directors and utility staff.
While the path forward has been made more challenging, Geen and Byland will forge ahead.
“It would have been smoother with Greater Vernon support, but we’re not changed in our drive or changed in our direction. We do plan to move forward with our application with the province.”
He added there was talk about a social contract with agriculturalists at the meeting, referencing director Guy’s remark that such a social contract is the main reason why Greater Vernon is meeting its overall 50 per cent water use reduction target, and allowing preferential treatment to some high water users would break that social contract.
“It’s more of the Don Corleone type of contract that I can see,” Geen said.
Tom Davison, of Davison Orchards, echoed Geen’s disappointment as the operator of a major agricultural operation and tourist attraction in the Bella Vista area.
“It’s frustrating to see what seems like a lack of urgency from the politicians that don’t seem to understand the damage that’s occurring daily,” Davison told The Morning Star, adding his family business’s losses are already in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We’re disappointed that the wells that Geen and Byland have proposed for Coldstream, that they’re not supporting that, because we think it’s just a short-term tool, and we need every tool we possibly can get.”
Protecting Kal Lake paramount, directors say
“We cannot risk impacting Kal Lake,” RDNO general manager of utilities Zee Marcolin stressed at GVAC’s meeting, while evoking the concept of — to repurpose an old idiom — stealing water from Peter to quench the thirst of Paul.
“We are in this position where what we do in one area could impact another area,” Marcolin added.
The concern is that taking water from Coldstream aquifer could effectively be stealing water from Kal Lake.
In fact, this was always assumed to be highly possible, it’s just that the RDNO’s recent preliminary study indicates that that water ‘theft,’ so to speak, could happen now rather than years down the road.
Director Cumming commented on this new information.
“The information we were given by the visiting hydrologist (on July 8) was that it would take many years, maybe 10, maybe 12 years, before that particular water affected Kal Lake,” Cumming said. “It’s my understanding that we have information that we didn’t have on that night. It indicates that there is a high probability that taking water today will impact Kal Lake today.”
“If we are taking (water) in one place and losing it in another (within the same time period), then we don’t have a gain,” Cumming continued. “I think we’re in very dire straits. Seeing Vernon Creek dry at 14th Avenue was a huge surprise to me 10 days ago, and that indicates that the outfall from Kal Lake is less than what’s required to keep even the minimum flow in Vernon Creek.”
Director Teresa Durning agreed with others that GVAC is not informed enough on this topic and should leave it to the ministry to decide on whether the wells will be authorized.
“I do believe that it is in our best interest to step out and let the scientists and the water people that specialize on these things weigh in and make those decisions,” Durning said. “And it’s not a shocking decision, in my opinion, for this table.”