By Lexi McFarlane, Times Chronicle

A new approach to drought management is being taken by the Town of Oliver, with an eye on having more accurate, up-to-date indicators to better inform the Town of current water levels.

The finalized Drought Management Plan (DMP), presented to Council last week, brings in a plan that better informs the Town of current water supply and better aligns with regional practices in the Okanagan.

The plan would provide early signs of drought conditions, but with revised “trigger” indicators that would set off water restrictions.

Over the past three months, Council has been eager to implement a new system that doesn’t rely as heavily on indicators such as the water levels of Skaha Lake to notify of a drought. More recent data has also been sought, with Water Councillor Rick Machial lamenting during a May meeting that data from five months earlier wasn’t the most ideal to be making decisions based on

“There’s just a bit of frustration, because I  wish we had more up to date information,” Machial said. “If we’re dealing with December information, and we’re using a lot of the triggers for our stages, it’s almost like a (moot) point.”

At the time and even beforehand, Councillor David Mattes also explained how the Town of Oliver is unique in that water is sourced primarily from aquifers, as opposed to how other towns rely on lakes.

“When we look at the restrictions in other towns, it’s on the basis of they draw surface water from the lakes. We do not,” Mattes said. “So to say that we should do what they do doesn’t make sense because we’re not in the same circumstance. We need data that’s more pertinent to our circumstances.

“Not just global information- we might as well know what the polar ice caps are (at).”

It was also revealed then by Kelly Mercer, the Director of Operations, that the prior system wasn’t doing much to curtail water use when activated. Part of the hope with the new strategy is to encourage consumers to be smarter with their water consumption.

Work on the new DMP was spearheaded by the OBWB, which has helped inform Oliver in developing the previous full plan in 2017, and subsequent updates to it. In March, Dr. Nelson Jatel, an OBWB Water Stewardship Director, presented recommendations to Council in March for the new plan.

The finalized 2026 strategy uses a tiered system for indicators, with the Operational category, Tier 1, covering groundwater supply and system performance, and Tier 2 being a trend-based supporting category for early warning signs.

Those early triggers would indicate whether the Town would need to move into a less-restrictive Stage 1 or 2 of water restrictions, while Operational triggers would force a more urgent Stage 3 or 4 restriction.

Sean Curry, an Engineering Technologist with TRUE Engineering and the Project Engineer for the DMP, said the Tier 2 indicators help mitigate drought impacts before they happen.

“We monitor these items to see a developing risk before it shows up in the aquifer,” Curry said.

Skaha Lake is still included as an indicator; however, the focus is on the lake’s elevation, something Mattes said should be reversed.

“I’ve spoken against it, not because it doesn’t work to recharge our aquifers, but because recharging our aquifers does not happen at the top of the lake,” Mattes said. “And that’s the measurement that we’re using. If the lake goes down (in height) by five feet, our aquifers will still get recharged by that system. So using that measurement from the top doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, when we’re recharged from the bottom.”

Other Tier 2 indicators include the Okanagan snowpack levels, provincial drought level declarations, and seasonal water use trends.

The DMP includes definitions for each of the four Stages within it, as it relates to their severity. Stage 1 is designated “Awareness”, indicating that while no drought is active presently, a drought scenario could emerge. Stage 2 is the “Advisory” stage, while the more significant Stages 3 and 4 are designated “Operational Stress” and “Emergency”, respectively. Restrictions would only be implemented in Stages 3 and 4, should they be activated.

Under the revised strategy, there would be a greater possibility that the Town would not be under any water restrictions. Machial wondered that possibility openly, based on having “read through all this”, as to why that would be the case.

“If we were following this drought management plan right now, would we even be in Stage 1?” Machial asked.

Curry confirmed that they would, though reminded that Stage 1 in the new plan is different from the current plan,

“We would be in Stage 1, based on the Skaha Lake levels,” Curry said. “But we wouldn’t be in Stage 2.” Tier 1 indicators include the levels of groundwater in production wells along with the wells’ availability, demand relative to capacity, and any operational constraints in effect. Groundwater levels must remain above 1.5 metres above the pump to not be considered “too low”.

Another key tenet of the DMP would be encouraging water efficiency through motivating factors such as awareness campaigns and tiered water rates for higher-level consumers.

The Town has also included Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in the plan, with all newly-installed water meters featuring the technology, which tracks real-time consumption and water leaks, and permits better forecasting of water use.

As part of the new DMP, the Town would monitor data not just through their own sources, but through four other organizations. Data from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition  (SCADA), the BC River Forecast Centre, the Water Survey of Canada, and provincial drought summaries.

Councillor Aimee Grice highlighted better collaboration with the provincial government and bodies, especially, as being key to a more successful drought management strategy.

“Having those readings in December doesn’t inform us as well as it would if we were getting those readings in May or June,” Grice said. “I know it’s the province that does those readings, but to communicate that to the province, that having those readings done in a more timely manner would help us to inform this [process better.”

Mayor Martin Johansen felt the finalized DMP was well-crafted enough to proceed with. “This management plan hits everything that we’ve been asking for, for sure,” Johansen said.

The finalized DMP will be brought to a future Regular Council Meeting for final approval and implementation.