By Lyonel Doherty
Crossing its fingers that another rock fall doesn’t happen, Town council is looking at cheaper options for the Gallagher Lake siphon repair project.
On Monday, council initially approved moving ahead with a “low head” option utilizing a five-foot pipe with a new pumping station for $8 million. It will also incorporate other options that were explored at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
The current option of re-routing a section of canal around Gallagher Lake has jumped in cost to $13.2 million, which council is shying away from since no federal funding is on the horizon. This was mentioned by water councillor Rick Machial who said it doesn’t look like the town will get a single penny from the federal Liberals.
“Good luck in this riding; if they get more than 10 votes (in the election) I’ll be surprised.”
A third option council looked at was an alternate intake at Buchanan Drive for $7.2 million. This intake on the Okanagan River (downstream of Gallagher Lake) would tie in to the existing canal and continue to supply irrigation water to downstream users.
But engineer Steve Underwood said the fatal flaw in this option was the “outrageous” costs in energy consumption.
Machial said the biggest fear right now is having another rock slide (on the siphon) that could cost millions of dollars in damage to local crops.
Both Machial and Councillor Dave Mattes agreed that constructing the five-foot pipe system would work as a “backup” in case another catastrophe befell the siphon.
“I’d like to look at this as we’re building a back-up system as opposed to building a new system,” Mattes said.
But Mayor Martin Johansen had a hard time buying into that.
“I’m trying to understand; we’re going to spend $8 million on a back-up system that we’re not going to operate unless we need it?”
Mattes said the Town needs a back-up plan regardless.
But Johansen said if the Town is going to build it, just build it and use it, noting it doesn’t make sense to spend all that money on a back-up and still run the old system.
“The logic behind it is the old system is free,” Mattes said.
Machial said if they build the new system and a rock slide causes a catastrophe, then farmers won’t lose what they have.
“We have to have a back-up plan; we have a guillotine over our heads.”
Chief Administrative Officer Cathy Cowan reminded council that the $5 million committed by the provincial government is for a permanent fix of the siphon. She questioned whether this funding would be available for a “back-up” plan.
