BANFF, Alta. – Plentiful supplies of sunshine and water in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley offer major incentives for people moving to area.
However, a 2004 study warned that water supply will not be able to keep up with population increases, said Wenda Mason of Land and Water B.C., the agency responsible for monitoring the province’s resources.
“Present growth trends are unsustainable unless major changes are made to managing and regulating water in the basin,” she told a national water conference in Banff June 16.
The valley’s population is expected to grow as much as 15 percent to 375,000 by 2015. Yet longer, drier summers and warmer winters have threatened water supplies for the 200-kilometre-long valley.
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Agriculture, recreation and tourism are key economic drivers and all depend on mountain snow runoff to refill the valley’s lakes and rivers. The region experiences a semi-arid climate with less than 250 millimetres of precipitation on average per year.
About 70 percent of the water is diverted for irrigation on a variety of crops including orchards, more than 40 vineyards and horticultural operations.
A rapidly growing recreation industry and retirement community is also placing continued demands and potential conflicts on the water supply allocated through licences.
“Many of the tributaries within the basin are now designated as fully allocated,” Mason said.
This means no new licences are being issued for new off-stream uses and a number of restrictions have been placed on water use and withdrawal.
Past studies of the region’s water supply have fallen short because of unexpected population growth.
The Okanagan Basin Water Board was created following a study in the 1970s.
It was charged with protecting water quality but its function is shifting to assessing quantity as supplies grow more precarious.
Another study from the mid-1990s concluded that 630,000 cubic meters of water would be available if a severe drought occurred in the Okanagan. As a result, it was decided that no more than that amount could be licensed.
“The reality is due to consumptive and non-consumptive uses and the lack of metering, it is very difficult to determine if that volume is fully allocated,” Mason said.
“We want to avoid mining the lake where it becomes so low it cannot recover within a year.”
Land and Water B.C. initiated a study last year on supply and demand. The first phase has been completed and will help make decisions on future allocations.
Up to now, the region has had little information on ground water supply, how much is lost in evaporation and how much water is used for agriculture.
The next phase will be done this year and will involve more public consultation to quantify the current supply of surface and ground water.
