Re-Work of Master Water Plan Right Move

Posted on 6/1/2015 by Ron Manz

KISS FM News

 

Greater Vernon's Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan have expressed their approval of local politicians committing to create a new water plan last week.

Citizen's chair Terry Mooney says that decision is a first step in rethinking the idea of using the Duteau Creek system for farm usage.

He says the high cost of filtration for irrigation water is driving the price up for everyone.

"The fact that they are treating the water from the Duteau Creek system for agricultural use, that's the single most expensive element in the whole water picture, so domestic waters are paying for that as well as consumption rates.  It's the filtration that's costing a lot of money." 

He says the high cost of water locally is largely due to a $400 flat fee on water bills.

That's because of the up front, front loaded base costs and those base costs are what the Regional District of the North Okanagan uses to cover their capital projects and the continued development of Duteau Creek for fresh water."

Mooney says the referendum defeat last fall showed politicians residents are not going to stand for high water bills when there are ways to cutting those costs/.

"They are going to have to do something obviously.  If you have a commodity and you price it beyond people's ability to pay, something has to happen.  You either have to cut your costs or reduce your services or something different would have to happen."

Mooney says a petition they have been circulating has the support of close to a thousand signatures asking for an independent review of the Master Water Plan.

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Public Meeting by Citizens' Group - Schubert Centre - May 19, 2015

The Public Meeting organized by the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan (CCMWP) drew a large crowd to the Schubert Centre. Several politicians also attended the meeting and watched the presentation by Eric Jackson, a well known expert on water and waste-water issues. He is currently a professor at Okanagan College on those issues. A question period following the presentation indicated overwhelming support for the efforts of the citizens' group.

Mr. Jackson consented to allow his presentation to be shared by the general public through this blog. The entire presentation can be viewed as a Power Point presentation here or as a PDF format here.

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Group Seeks Council Support For Water Change - KISS FM

Written by Peter McIntyre 
Tuesday, 24 March 2015 04:17

The group Citizens for Change says Greater Vernon residents are getting hosed on their water rates.

Former city manager Eric Jackson told Vernon council, using the Duteau Creek source for domestic and farming is the reason the rates have tripled since 2003.

"The impact of this is that people on fixed incomes are finding it very difficult to pay their water bills. It's making Vernon less competitive with other Okanagan cities," says Jackson.

The group wants a change in the master water plan to make Duteau Creek water just for farming, and using Kal and Okanagan lakes for domestic.

"The high costs that citizens are paying is now going to to pay for expensive treatment of the worst quality water that we have in this area," says Jackson, who served as director of water reclamation for the city for 25 years and is currently a professor at Okanagan College.

Councillor Juliette Cunningham -- who is also Greater Vernon Advisory Committee chair -- says they will get public input as part of the process.

"I don't think we can assume to know what failed. Was it the plan, or the funding for the plan? I don't think any of us are really clear about that, and it's something we need to clarify," Cunningham tells Kiss FM.

Council will discuss the group's request for support at its next meeting April 13.

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Actually, I am quite sure I know what failed: it was the referendum that asked people to approve the borrowing of $70 million for 6 specific projects of the Master Water Plan. The $70 million was not for unspecified expenditures: it was quite specific. No money - no plan.

I could be wrong and if you fellow water customers think I am wrong you can correct me by commenting on this blog.

The Citizens' group also made the presentation to Coldstream Council on Monday night. I welcome all ratepayers to provide input.

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Call For Plan Ban Rejected

Written by Peter McIntyre 
Friday, 06 March 2015 16:21

A citizen's group says public opinion appears to be swaying over the direction of Greater Vernon's master water plan.

Terry Mooney from Citizens For Change is pleased to hear local politicians at least talking about limiting the Duteau Creek source to farming, and switching domestic customers to Kalamalka and Okanagan lakes which he says would be far less costly.

"I think there's a will now for the public representatives to at least have a good look at this master water plan and fix the mistakes that were made in the 1960's and 70's," Mooney tells Kiss FM.

Mooney says his group is disappointed the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee decided against a moratorium on all master water plan projects based on last November's failed referendum.

"We were trying to make the distinction that it has nothing to do with the day to day operations, but we still need the direction that money is not to be spent on any of the six projects tied to the referendum," says Mooney.

GVAC vice chair Jim Garlick disagreed, saying that vote was for borrowing 70 million dollars for six projects, not a vote on the plan itself.

BX Silver Star director Mike Macnabb led the opposition to the motion made by Coldstream director Gyula Kiss, saying a ban doesn't make sense, given that everything they do with water, relates to the master water plan.

Vernon director Bob Spiers supported the ban, saying if at some point they decide the Duteau source won't be used for domestic use, studies in this year's budget will be unnecessary.

"Why spend that money?, asked Spiers. "It should be put into a pending reserve for master water plan projects."

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 "...vote was for borrowing 70 million dollars for six projects, not a vote on the plan itself."

I wonder how we could actually go ahead with a plan that has no funding. 

Unless we ask people why they turned down the borrowing it is simply a guess why they did so. Coldstream residents voted 70% against the referendum. Did they do so because of the money or because they did not like this particular plan? Perhaps they did not like the idea that after spending close to $200 million they would still be irrigating agricultural crops with very expensive filtered water.

Just for the sake of argument let's assume they turned it down because of the money. Where would GVWU get the funds to implement the plan? Will they start collecting the $70 million through increased water rates? Perhaps. But having rejected the borrowing at an estimated annual repayment of about $5 million would these same ratepayers be happy with increased water rates in the order of $10-14 million a year? GVW did that after the 2004 referendum but now there are more careful watchdogs keeping their eyes on the till. Santa Claus (senior governments) is unlikely to come up with the dough so our investigative reporters should find out from where the money is expected to come from for the "unrejected" MWP.

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Water Rates Highest in Okanagan

Posted on 2/5/2015 by Betty Selin

A group of Greater Vernon residents is concerned about higher water rates.

The Group, "Citizens for Change to the Master Water Plan" is concerned that the budget debate at GVAC will proceed to set water rates, before they have an opportunity to present their proposed new direction for the Master Water Plan

The group, which includes several former politicians, says they have joined together to assess the staff driven requests for higher water rates to fund the long term capital programs and to increase the reserves for future needs.

The group says they want to ensure that the results of the No vote in the November 15 referendum, is upheld. They are in the process of preparing a presentation for the GVAC which will provide recommendations for needed changes to the Master Water plan.

At the January 22nd meeting of the GVAC, there was no action taken on the request for a moratorium. The group is concerned politicians are prepared to consider "back-door" funding that will move RDNO pre-referendum programs forward by raising water rates to cover the costs of the expenditures, under the cover of 'reserves', and to date without public input.

They're also worried the budget debate scheduled for Thursday morning will set water rates, before they have an opportunity to present the proposed new direction for the Master Water Plan

Water rates for the same amount of drinking water in 2014 show that Greater Vernon domestic water users pay $899.70, more than twice the Penticton rate of $427.62, and triple the $291.98 for the same amount of water from Kelowna bills. From 2010 to 2014 the cost of a cu. meter of drinking water has doubled for Greater Vernon water users. Changes to the billing structure mean that less of the water bill is from metered usage and more is coming from arbitrary fixed front end charges.

Our citizen's group which includes, Janet Green, Wayne McGrath, Klaus Tribes and Maria Besso, is asking that all budget approvals supporting water rate increases be suspended until March 5th, or that a special meeting of the GVAC be held to allow elected representatives to be informed of the proposed new direction to the Master Water Plan from this community group.

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