LETTER – Noble Creek irrigation system users ask for reprieve until end of 2024

EDITOR/S NOTE: The following letter from the Noble Creek Irrigation Society is on the agenda for the Kamloops City council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2023.

THE FUTURE OF THE NOBLE CREEK IRRIGATION SYSTEM (NCIS): SUMMISSION TO COUNCIL FOR DUE CONSIDERATION

Background

The City of Kamloops has made it clear that they do not wish to retain ownership and/or operate the NCIS in future. This has been accepted by the NCIS Customers as a fait accompli.

In 2022, the City Council made the decision to operate the system until 2028 in order to give the City and NCIS Customers time to find a long-term solution to provide affordable water to the NCIS customers. A budget allocation of $3 million was made to operate the NCIS until that time.

On May 30, 2023, the City Council and Staff (behind closed doors) provided directives to proceed with decommissioning the system starting in September 2023. We now understand that the decommissioning includes dismantling of the system, including removal of all the pipework down Westsyde Road. It should be noted that no NCIS members were consulted in this decision.

After NCIS Customers were informed of this City Council decision by City Staff at a public meeting on June 19th, 2023; the meeting consisted of a presentation by city staff then was abruptly ended by City Staff without allowing a town hall style discussion and questions by the users. When the question was asked why no group discussion was being allowed, City Staff did not answer.

The NCIS members were left reeling at this autocratic decision that will affect their property prices, farming status and farming livelihoods in future.

To summarize, the City staff told their NCIS Customers that they would have to install their own irrigation water intakes in the North Thompson River (as borewells in this area do not deliver enough volume of water for irrigation). The City Council has offered to provide some financial support to help customers install their own water systems.
Following Up

The NCIS members started approaching engineers and irrigation companies in order to find out how to install individual water intakes. It soon became clear that these water intakes would be significantly more expensive ($10 million in total) than the payment program being offered to the NCIS members as compensation in lieu of the NCIS decommissioning/dismantling.

The next hurdle that the individual NCIS members would face is that they will have to have individual licenses apportioned to them from the original NCIS river water intake license.

On contacting the Ministry of Forests Water Stewardship Division in this regard, some of the NCIS members were informed that as part of their license applications, engineering and environmental studies would be required to prove that their intakes could be installed in the river without impacts. This approval process could take a year or more to achieve.

Either way, with the current decision from council, it seems that the NCIS agricultural area will be left without a reliable supply of water in 2024.

Apart from affecting individual full-time and part-time farmers who are City residents, this would affect the $9 million of contribution that this area provides to the local economy. This also flies in the face of the current Federal and Provincial Government moves towards assisting with drought alleviation, preserving agricultural land, and increasing food security in Canada.

Solutions

One of the irrigation suppliers who visited the Woodward Farm asked the question why the NCIS members could not take over the current irrigation system, as it would be a more cost-effective solution.

The answer was that the City Utility Manager told them that it was not possible to due to the fact that the city had been led to believe that the Province would discourage such a handover, and secondly, the NCIS river intake was going to fall into the river and has to be removed.

On approaching the Provincial Water Comptroller’s Office in Victoria, it was found out that forming an institution under the BC Water Users Community Act was currently an option.

The members therefore wish to investigate this option of the NCIS members taking over the system as a group.

The City Staff have provided resources on how to secure additional funding through the Investment Agriculture Foundation (IAF). After reviewing the objectives of the funding program and speaking with IAF representatives, the opportunity to successfully secure funding as a group is orders of magnitude higher than applying individually.

After talking to the City’s CAO and the Civic Operations Director, they suggested that we put this submission in to Council for us to request more time to explore the option of grouping together to provide one water system for 47 (or less) water users.
The Consideration Asked of Council

Whichever option that faces the NCIS Members (own river intakes or one communal system owned by the group), the big realization is that the current Council decision does not allow the NCIS members to find a reliable supply of irrigation by April 2024.

We wish to request that the City continue operating the NCIS for until the end of the 2024 irrigation season so that the NCIS Members can investigate the group ownership option and the transition to their own systems, or a group irrigation system, whichever is found most feasible.