Drinking Water Source Protection Plan – Okanagan Falls Ground Water

2010

$30,000

$15,000

The Okanagan Falls Irrigation District used the Source to Tap Assessment guide to create a source protection plan for their groundwater sources. Project components included delineation of well capture zones, potential contaminant source inventory, risk characterization and development of an implementation plan. The project identified and proposed an aquifer protection zone for the Okanagan Falls area, which supplies drinking water to approximately 2,500 residents.The District also explored the opportunity to put a currently unused well in place as an observation well, increasing the network of observation wells in the South Okanagan. In addition, the project successfully coordinated with RDOS about how land use planning can be used to protect the aquifer including coordination of the plan with the updated OCP as well as creating a new development permit review and referral process. The Okanagan Falls area is part of a large valley-bottomgroundwater system that flows south into Oliver and Osoyoos. Protecting this part of the aquifer system serves to protect the resource for users down gradient of Okanagan Falls.