OSOYOOS TIMES-September 15, 2010

By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times

It’s called the Water Conservation Plan and it’s intended to bring about more efficient use of Osoyoos’s water resources in order to provide capacity for new growth consistent with provincially defined standards.
Developing the plan is a step that must be carried out in order to receive future infrastructure grant funds from higher levels of government, states the plan.
British Columbia’s Provincial Living Water Smart Initiative includes goals that by 2020, municipalities will be 33 per cent more efficient when it comes to water and that by 2020, 50 per cent of all new water for municipalities will come from conservation.
Osoyoos’s Water Conservation Plan, which was developed by TRUE Consulting and adopted by Osoyoos council at its Sept. 7 meeting, begins with an in-depth description of each of the Town’s water service areas.
“From a water supply perspective, the Town of Osoyoos is somewhat unique in that it owns and operates several water systems, each having different water quality and service capacity,” states the plan.
There are six water supply wells in the municipal water system – No. 3, in East Osoyoos at Maple Drive; numbers 4 and 5 at Cottonwood Park; No. 6, at the Lacey Point Area; No. 1 at Jack Shaw Gardens and No. 8 at Kingfisher Drive and 83rd Street.
Irrigations systems 8 and 9 service the rural areas north and south of town and the west side of Osoyoos Lake.
The Town also uses reclaimed water, meaning that since 1979, treated municipal wastewater has been available for irrigation in the West Bench area.
The plan states that the municipal water system can only handle a maximum daily demand of 30 million litres.
And based on the Town’s Official Community Plan, Osoyoos’s population is going to grow from 5,000 people to 8,300 people by 2027 and that’s too many people for the amount of water we have here.
“The community plan appropriately concludes that the long-term viability of the Town’s municipal water system will depend on demand management, with the first step being a water conservation plan.”
Determining if Osoyoos uses more water than other communities is a challenge.
People in Osoyoos use 1,300 litres of water per person per day.
In Oliver, it’s 1,400 litres per person; Princeton at 1,900 and Penticton at 670.
But a number of factors need to be considered when comparing water use in different communities.
First, in the Southern Interior, lawn and garden irrigation is the largest component of residential water use, states the plan.
The fact that Osoyoos’s climate is different than other communities is a variable that has to be considered.
Also, since there is no water metering in Osoyoos, water data includes all land uses like commercial and industrial.
The plan, which is more than 50 pages long, discusses system water costs, use projections and outlines water conservation measures like a universal metering program and low-flush toilets.
It outlines options like expansion of the reclaimed water system (specifically for irrigation at Osoyoos Secondary School), alternate water supplies for town parks and water twinning possibilities.
“The single largest component is the universal metering program scheduled for 2012 which is consistent with the Town’s water capital budget,” states the plan.
The proposed water conservation plan aims for a 25-per-cent reduction in the average annual water demand by 2014 and aims for a 15-per-cent reduction in the maximum day water demand by 2014 – and that should be adequate beyond 2030, states the plan’s summary.
Some of the recommendations are being implemented this year, states a staff report by Barry Romanko, Osoyoos’s chief administrative officer.
The identification and metering of high water users has been tendered and will proceed in the next month, he said.
Existing meters have been changed over to a radio-read system, allowing easier data collection.
Lastly, a new water conservation bylaw is underway and should be implemented by next spring.
Osoyoos councillors adopted the plan as presented and are encouraging the public to read the document.
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