Tom Stanbrook owns the Michaelbrook Golf Club in Kelowna and the water he relies on for irrigation comes from the Michael Brook – which he says runs partly along his property and partly along property owned by his neighbour.
“He’s brought dump truck loads of fill in here and dumped them here to block the water off,” Stanbrook said.
Fill has been dropped in two places along Michael Brook, diverting the water away from the golf course’s pump house.
The man who diverted the water is Stanbrook’s neighbour Alex Rezansoff; and he sees things completely differently. He claims Michael Brook is nothing but a ditch.
“I dug the ditch when I bought the land; it was the 1980’s. I bought the land and it needed drainage. There was a ditch dug by the previous owner and I re-dug it,” Rezansoff said.
Rezansoff says if it wasn’t for his work, there would have been no water flowing to the golf course pumphouse, so he asked Stanbrook to pay him a thousand dollars a year and free golfing for the use of the water.
This year Stanbrook refused to pay and Rezansoff diverted the water.
“It’s my land. The ditch is entirely on my property. It’s not a common waterway, it’s a ditch on my property.”
The city of Kelowna disagrees.
“It’s certainly a creek,” Todd Cahsin, Kelowna’s Suburban and Rural Planning Manager said.
“It’s a creek in terms of meeting the Water Act, in terms of being a fish bearing creek. There are fish in there.”
Changes in and around streams are only allowed with provincial permits. The matter is now in the hands of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, which confirms it is conducting an investigation.