Watershed Risk Communication Project

2017

$35,000

$20,000

In 2017 the North Kalamalka Lake Assessment Response Plan was accepted by Interior Health. Drinking water protection links to understanding the hazards in the watershed, how vulnerable the drinking water is to those hazards (contaminate transfer potential), the likelihood, consequence to the community= Risk. The Vulnerability mapping is helping communicate with Local Government planning and Engineering- zoning, storm water and drainage, and bylaws to protect drinking water. Understanding the time that it will take a contaminate to be transported to the intake supports the time that an operator has to react. Calculating time travel within land pathways such as creeks and storm sewers that discharge near a lake intake is included in the Vulnerability matrix (Very High to low). A heightened vulnerability is due to an assumed lack of time for the water system operator to react. This project helps in understanding the travel time of a contaminate to the intake and will assist operations. The GIS layers provide a visual for land use planning.