Weather Impacts Water

The Duteau Creek plant is supplying all the water to Greater Vernon at the moment — and that could be the case for a while.

Water manager Zee Marcolin says the Kalamalka Lake source has been shut down for over a week due to high turbidity, which is a result of the spring melt and the weather.

“When we have these wind events, we get underground waves, so when the wave gets pushed up to our end of the lake, the upper layer goes deep and it gets drawn into our intake,” says Marcolin.

She says at this point, having one source is not an issue.

“The only reason we would turn Kal Lake back on in the next couple of weeks is if we saw a huge spike in water use. The Duteau Plant can do up to 160 mega litres  per day, but we’re well under 100 right now.”

Marcolin says their reservoirs have been spilling up to a month earlier the last few years.

She says the moment they stop spilling, is when they start using their storage.

“So if say the first week of June happens and our spill stops, and we have a hot dry June, we could be looking at a drought. It’s very ironic, but we have to be prepared for everything,” she tells Kiss FM.

Marcolin says the utility is having to adapt to distinct changes in the weather the last four years.