Board raises concerns about logging near watershed

Local politicians want more say on where logging activities can take place in the area of community watersheds.

The Regional District of North Okanagan has concerns that Tolko plans to clear-cut a site just 500 metres upslope from the Duteau Creek intake.

Greater Vernon Advisory Committee (GVAC) Chair Akbal Mund said directors at their recent meeting approved writing to the Ministry of Forests to express their concerns about a lack of input.

“GVAC doesn’t have a problem with Tolko doing some logging within the watershed. The issue is right now we don’t have any control of where that logging can occur. So the justification for the letter is to send it to the province and say, ‘Look when you issue permits for companies to log within watersheds, you should talk to the local governance who run the area before you issue these permits,'” said Mund.

Mund said compounding the issue is Interior Health making demands to improve water quality.

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“It doesnt make any logical sense, on one side, to issue logging permits when we’re trying to protect the watershed — and deliver the best water we can to our customers — and on the other side, have no control to say where logging is going to occur or not occur,” Mund told Vernon Matters.

RDNO staff say Duteau Creek supplies 60 per cent of the water that is provided to Greater Vernon Water (GVW) customers, including most of the agricultural customers.

Its location is in an extremely vulnerable area as it is surrounded by steep slopes with no buffer between upslope land and the Headgates reservoir

“Potential impacts from logging the proposed block range from “minimal impacts” to potentially”catastrophic” if a debris flow or landslide were to be triggered. A debris flow or landslide could fill the reservoir, causing a loss of the Duteau Creek water source,” said the report from Zee Marcolin, General Manager, Utilities.

The report goes on to say GVW has already experienced two extreme precipitation events that significantly increased instantaneous peak flows at the Duteau Creek intake in 2013 and 2017.

“The 2017 event triggered an Emergency Operation Centre to be opened at the RDNO and caused a 10 day Boil Water event for GVW. Based on a survey of customers completed by GVW, this created a financial burden of between $2.5 to $3.5 million to GVW customers and caused all surgeries to be cancelled during this time at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital, a regional facility. These events demonstrate the vulnerability of the site and the potential significance of extreme weather events,” said the report.

Due to its concerns, RDNO staff hired a hydrologist to complete a review of the block, with hydrologist Don Dobson providing a summary of his conclusions.

“In my opinion there are significant hydrologic hazards associated with the proposed block that have not been adequately assessed. Unless the risk assessment process that Tolko uses to address proposed high risk cutblocks confirms that the risks from developing this block to the GVW water supply and the Headgates intake pond will not increase as a result of developing this block, as proposed, the block should not be logged as it is currently proposed,” stated Dobson.