Water Source Review Project

2006

$30,000

$30,000

Greater Vernon Water (GVW) relies on seven sources for domestic and irrigation water. The two major sources, Kalamalka Lake and Duteau Creek, are subject to limitations such as water license and available runoff and storage. A review of these major sources was conducted to determine to what extent storage can be increased to provide more water. A site visit was conducted to confirm the condition and location of the dams, diversions, weirs and state of the forestry roads in the Duteau system. The study confirmed that the Duteau water system can supply significantly more water than the 16,400 ML consumed in 2004, but the accessibility of this water depends on the degree of regulation of uncontrolled flows in the watershed. Potential runoff collection possibilities included an additional dam on Duteau Creek which would control the remaining flows on the watershed, as well as increased maintenance of the Gold-Paradise diversion, or expansion of that watershed. This project found that there are likely few options to ever increasing consumptive licenses off the Kalamalka-Wood Lake System, and if there were ever physical alterations to the system, such as lowering the Lower Vernon Creek outlet, GVW would likely not benefit. The report produced for this project analyzes how the basin is fully allocated and how past assessments affected GVW in particular.