Vaseux Lake water quality study needs funding

PENTICTON – Vaseux Lake residents hope an application for a water study finds approval with regional district directors and the Okanagan Basin Water Board.

Residents have expressed concerns lately about the deteriorating quality of the lake’s water. The application seeks $25,000 in grant funding from the water board to complete phase one of a plan to produce a land use inventory, build a conceptual model of flow through the lake, set up a water sampling plan and begin sampling.

The main purpose of the plan is to determine what influences the water quality of the lake.

A total of four water conservation and quality improvement projects will come before the regional district board for approval on Thursday, Feb. 2.

Regional district staff is seeking approval of four applications for Okanagan Basin Water Board grant funding. The projects range in request amounts from $7,350 to $25,000 and include requests to complete the region’s drought flood risk mitigation plan, a regional aquifer study, the water quality study for Vaseux Lake and a water storage plan for the Twin Lakes system.

The regional district has until Feb. 17 to apply for the grants, which are available to all three Okanagan regional districts, member municipalities, irrigation and improvement districts, and non profit community organizations.

The Water Board has a total of $300,000 available for the grants, which are focussed in 2017 on such things as hydrological data collection, water use and conservation, landscaping and irrigation, habitat mapping and restoration or policy planning projects.

Grants, which are disbursed in amounts from $3,000 to $30,000, can cover up to 100 per cent of applicable costs.

The board will be asked to forward a resolution supporting the four projects at its Thursday, Feb. 2 meeting.

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