Rob Crampton (left) and Jeff Harfman stand by a well they helped drill on a property at the end of 66th Avenue in Osoyoos last week. The chair of the Osoyoos Irrigation District hopes the well will help the district meet Interior Health’s current domestic water standards. Photo by Paul Everest
OSOYOOS TIMES-August 26,2009
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
The chair of the Osoyoos Irrigation District (East Bench) is confident that a well drilled last week at the end of 66th Avenue near the foot of Anarchist Mountain may solve the district’s water woes.
The district has been looking for a way to meet Interior Health drinking water standards introduced in 2004.
If its 42-year-old domestic water system isn’t upgraded to meet the standards, the province could put the district in receivership.
Such an upgrade could cost millions of dollars.
The district has been considering three options on how to meet the new water standards including having the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) take the district over, have the Town of Osoyoos take the district over or covering the costs of needed upgrades itself.
For the past year and a half, all three options have proven challenging on grounds of cost, feasibility or willingness on the part of any of the trio of organizations to deal with the water issues.
But on Aug. 18, a team of drillers from Anarchist Mountain’s Regal Ridge development drilled down 160 metres on a property owned by former district chair Jim Pendergraft and tapped a known aquifer that started pumping out 473 litres of water per minute.
Regal Ridge developer Adrian Erickson was approached by the district in May about the possibility of drilling the well and he agreed to find and tap the aquifer at a small cost to the district.
Erickson said part of the reason he agreed to drill the well for the district is because he wants local people to understand there is underground water in the area.
Current district chair Linda Lobb said the well could be used to provide domestic water to 150 district members.
She said the well water would be tested immediately to see if it is free of any harmful minerals and then Interior Health would decide on how the well would be developed.
If the water is good, the district could apply to Interior Health for a permit to develop the well and build infrastructure that would connect district households up to the well, Lobb said.
That process would require a system of twinning, where district residents would still use water from Osoyoos Lake for irrigation purposes while the new well would provide potable water.
This October, Lobb said, district members would have to look at the costs of developing the well.
Members would then have to decide whether to cover the costs of developing the well themselves or consider approaching the Town or the RDOS to take over the district’s water system and cover the costs.
The decision would then go to a referendum in the late fall or early 2010, Lobb said.
If the district decided to go it alone, it would have to apply for a loan from the provincial government.
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