WALSH – Why did Council erase efforts to save Noble Creek Irrigation System?

SOMETIMES I WONDER if my years on City council were a waste of time.

We worked throughout the past term to get the Noble Creek Irrigation System running sustainably. Suddenly, at a closed meeting this past May, the new council reversed all our previous efforts.

What a waste of time for the prior council, staff and utility users and of taxpayers’ money.

The current council decided to decommission the system this Fall, affecting 47 users who operate within City limits, pay taxes and utility fees to the City and who will not be able to find another immediate source of irrigation.

Next summer, expect to see all those green fields turned into dry, brown fire hazards.

Did City administrators apprise council of the value of wineries and market farms to tourism and our economic base? Did they explain how local food production aligns with the City’s agricultural and climate change action plans?

Did administrators and the three incumbents fully inform the new councilors and mayor of the minutiae of the expense and long, drawn-out work of the previous council before they voted to erase four years of hard work?

In May 2022, after negotiating, consulting, and commissioning engineering plans, we approved about $3 million to operate the system until 2028. We voted a 15 per cent rate increase over four years to help offset operating costs.

We had already allocated $1.7 million in 2020 for erosion control at Noble Creek. It hadn’t been done by the time we held our May 2022 funding sustainability vote, but City administrators said riprapping would finally start in Fall 2022. Why didn’t it?

Too little too late, this past May the City dumped some riprap at the facility when the North Thompson was already on the rise, due to a “state of emergency.”

The City’s neglect of bank erosion for the past 15 years led to this temporary costly and ineffective repair that will most likely have to be removed.

In 2022, we also pre-approved $250,000 to install water meters for system users, with the expectation that the facility would be self-sustaining within five years. Shamefully, though, water meters have already been installed. If the system is decommissioned, this will be another waste of tax money.

Has the City really allowed the facility to deteriorate to such an extent it now needs to be abandoned? In Spring, 2022, City administrators were confident that erosion could be controlled at the site. Why the sudden change?

City utility services manager Greg Wightman says the decision to kill the system was made due to severe erosion near the water system’s intake.

About 15 years ago the City commissioned an engineering plan for Noble Creek erosion control, but then Noble Creek fell off the agenda. A decade later, in 2018, Debbie Woodward of Privato Winery said, “If the system needs significant upgrades, why has this not been planned for well in advance of a disaster? We don’t operate our businesses that way and now, as a result of this mismanagement, our financial viability is at stake and on the line — and with immediate consequences.”

It never should have got this bad. The City was aware of erosion concerns. Why did they neglect to protect this valuable piece of City infrastructure?

Why have taxpayers paid big salaries to facility managers over the years only to have the irrigation system suffer neglect and unnecessary costs?

To help reduce operation costs, the system users had to point out to City staff the availability of a cheaper agricultural rate of $1,500 per year for the Noble Creek water license when they found out the City had been paying a $30,000 annual license fee to the Province for years.

They also asked about a much cheaper agricultural Hydro rate for the utility. Users themselves told the City to charge them more for water when they learned the City hadn’t done a proper billing audit for years.

Spend, spend, spend. Why didn’t the City upgrade the Noble Creek system instead of building a new emergency water intake at Westmount for $10 million five years ago? (I recall voting against it.) Revamping Noble Creek would have cost less and fulfilled the needs for irrigation and a backup water source for the city.

Why make the decision behind closed doors? It’s a City utility, not ‘land, labour or legal.’ Discussions and decisions about it are supposed to be public.

But notwithstanding all the leaks from City Hall lately, closed-door business is confidential. Now, councilors are muzzled and can’t talk to water users and the public about this issue.

Just to be sure there is no bad press, City Hall is also asking Noble Creek water users to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to qualify for “disconnection funding.”

What does the City have to hide?

Too bad the council vote was secret and too bad Mayor Hamer-Jackson couldn’t cobble together a majority of councilors willing to revisit their earlier vote. It would be useful to know where each one of them stands.

Denis Walsh is a former three-term Kamloops City councillor. He chose not to run again in 2022, convinced that City councillors should step aside after a maximum of three terms to allow others to serve and to experience being on the “outside looking in.”