VERNON – Along with choosing politicians in Saturday’s civic elections, many Vernon area voters had a multi-million dollar choice to make.
By an almost a two to one margin, they rejected borrowing up to $70 million to complete six water infrastructure projects.
Installing filtration at the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant was the largest proposal, at an estimated cost of $26 million..
“The existing water supply systems do not meet the Provincial Drinking Water Treatment Objective (Microbiological) for Surface Water Supplies, and this increases the risk of waterborne illness in the communities served by these water systems,” wrote Dan Byron, team leader for the Large Water Systems Program in a statement from the Interior Health.
While borrowing money was rejected, what happens now depends who you talk to. Despite the referendum results, the utility manager says the need for water improvements hasn’t changed.
She believes the projects will eventually be built.
“The plan is good,” says Marcolin. “What has been identified as the way to move forward is within that Master Water Plan, I can’t foresee that changing. What has changed is pretty much the scheduling of the projects, how quickly we are going to get them done.”
“I was pleased. I think the people spoke. We are happy that we can review the Master Water Plan again,” says Coldstream councillor Gyula Kiss.
Kiss believes the plan is not in the best interest of the community.
“We are still using filtered water to put on agricultural crops and that’s not the most efficient way of spending our money,” says Kiss.
Electoral Area B director Bob Fleming disagrees.
“The separation that made economic sense particularly was fully covered in the Master Water Plan so that all the areas that contributed the most volume to agricultural water were being removed from the treated system,” says Fleming.
He was disappointed, but not surprised, that the referendum didn’t pass.
“I know that in other referenda, that have happened in the past on other things, there has been failed referendums and it took one, two or three even to get a successful outcome. So the plan may have to be reworked,” says Fleming.
While what happens next remains unclear, the issue of upgrades is likely not going away anytime soon.
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