$350M to integrate SEKID only?

[Grandan]

This has me scratching my head. I was under the impression that no more water is available from Mission Creek. Did they not investigate that? Licencing has been maxed for decades. Who the heck did this plan up anyway? Some American firm? Yeah, look what they've done to their creeks and rivers.

Something is amiss.

I listened to a portion of the presentation to City Council by the consultant. What I heard was that Mission Creek water would be used for approximately 3/4 of the year when feasible with the determining factors being availability and turbidity. For those times of the year when the creek is too dirty or of insufficient flow then supplementing the system with lake water or well water.
There is a huge difference between a water licence, which I had at one time on the Smithson- Alphonce irrigation ditch which tied into Mission Creek near Ziprick and water drawn for a water utility. The operation duration of the water licence for irrigation is limited to the growing season. Irrigation ditches do not have a whole lot of control compared to a water utility, not to mention the waste of water.
There is sure to be an inlet structure and reservoirs along with treatment. The cost of pumping from the lake up to several hundred metres is substantial.

[edwardv]

There are way too many water districts in Kelowna. Each one has staff etc, but they also have elected boards. Each board member has there own agenda, and it is usually to keep there water rates down. How many of the people on the boards are Farmers? It could be argued that they should have lower rates but almost free is not really acceptable.

[kgcayenne]

I've been thinking about this for quite some time... dating back to about.... 2010 and then again in 2012 when the first integrated plan paper was written. Trustees, being residents and users, of the districts have all been pretty pro-active, with the exception of SEKID's water users. GEID went and purchased McKinley Landing Waterworks so they could benefit from the licencing and infrastructure drawing from OK Lake, RWD has been doing quite well on the development front, so has BMID. Imagine what the City could do with the RWD money from developer charges to help SEKID.

Yep, this is where it lies. People such as RWD users have a history of looking after their systems with their own money. Go read their capital works documents: They've had renewal plans in place for aging infrastructure that puts City planning to shame. I can completely understand why smaller system users would like to keep their water purveyors run by and for themselves.

SEKID, the water utility itself has been trying very hard, however it was the USERS who voted down building a water treatment at multiples less than the cost of what is being proposed. Those works would have been ten years into being paid for by now, and SEKID users would've had better water already. Nope... they want someone else's money to pay for it. Don't blame the farmers either, it's not they who moved into subdivisions on top of subdivisions in an agriculturally-geared region. They were using and dealing with the water without nearly the fusspottery of the people who were surprised their spendy homes didn't come plumbed with crystal-clear water have been.

Sure, if you folks on the City of Kelowna water utility are okay with increasing your water bill substantially in order to pay for upgrades needed in a region where the users have been balking at paying for their own... that's great... how absolutely generous of you to be willing to subsidize what so many others have been refusing to pay for on their own.

So, what's next, another $200,000 study to figure out that this USA-borne plan won't do?

[AtticSalt]

Attention SEKID water users...you should start asking where your government funding dollars are being spent...looks like the City of Kelowna is planning on spending it all very wisely!!! HA HA more studies and planning needed...and I thought our wonderful mayor had promised all of you clean water by 2017?? phhffffttttt....

[kelbear25]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/1 ... kill-creek
Glad these points are being brought up about the proposal to use mission creek as a water source for Kelowna. Why we would spend millions to restore that creek, only to turn around to spend more millions to undo the work? And is it worth the risk to habitat of kokanee and the environmental sustainability of mission creek?

[kgcayenne]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/192322/Save-money-kill-creek
Glad these points are being brought up about the proposal to use mission creek as a water source for Kelowna. Why we would spend millions to restore that creek, only to turn around to spend more millions to undo the work? And is it worth the risk to habitat of kokanee and the environmental sustainability of mission creek?

This is the result of certain people having a specific agenda who then sought out a specific type of company to provide a document signed by a 'professional' that can be submitted to get money out of a section of the government that has zero expertise on the project being funded. This most recent plan had been the brain child of an American consulting firm who has been described (in a Kelowna Daily Courier article) as a military strategist consulting firm.

Just look at what the Americans have done to their lakes and rivers. There's no way that crap is going to get legs here.

This was all just a ploy to get money, it's my opinion that the works actually constructed under this funding will differ drastically from the hatchling of this strategist group who know nothing at all about watersheds of the Kelowna area or our licencing practices.

[AtticSalt]

Can't wait to see how much water rates will be going up...thanks COK..and still nothing done except in the upper mission..