The fields around Kamloops’ longstanding Blackwell Dairy farm have turned from lush to dried out and weedy as the farm has not been able to irrigate this year.

“When you drive in the yard it looks like no one lives here, that no one cares but that’s not the case,” said farm manager Laura Hunter. “We’ve not had one drop of irrigation this year, we haven’t started our pumps once.”

Founded in 1913, the farm at 7000 Blackwell Road in Kamloops with roughly 120 cows that produce thousands of litres of milk every week going to stores in Kamloops, the Okanagan and the Shuswap.

The farm grows crops for feed, but that hasn’t happened this year because the source of irrigation water has dried up, and the result is a hefty financial blow.

The dairy is one of 130 licensed water users in the Barnhartvale community that pull from Campbell Creek to irrigate their fields in a system managed by the Campbell Creek Water User’s Community Association.

Campbell Creek is now lower than anyone can remember and part of a problem that has been building for more than a decade with irrigation water getting skimpier every season.

While Hunter pointed to low snowpack and no rain as contributing factors, she said the crux of the issue has to do with water use licensing.

“More licenses to pull from the creek have been given out and some people are using more than their license allows,” she said. “Also, licenses have been issued that were not approved by the Campbell Creek water users because there isn’t enough water to go around, and there are some people using water that don’t have a license.”

Blackwell has been trying to get support through the Ministry of Environment since 2013 to address the licensing issues. Their only hope now would be help from the courts.

“There was no communication with us with a lot of the licenses given out and we have no control over them,” Hunter said. “The government issues the licenses but within the water users community we manage and pay for everything.

“We look after our watershed and record everything. Any licenses have to abide by our community rules but the government has complete power over giving out licenses and have made that perfectly clear.”

Hunter added this has been the third very dry year in a row which has caught up in a major way.

“I believe its one of those cycles we’re going through every couple decades it’s just usually not this massive, this is pretty bad.”