West Kelowna forced to spend $1M on private land for Rose Valley water treatment plant

WEST KELOWNA – Failure to get the province to turn over Crown land for a water treatment plant in Rose Valley has forced the City of West Kelowna to spend almost $1 million to buy private land in the hopes of holding onto federal and provincial grants for the new facility.

The $41 million in grants have a March 2020 deadline, a deadline West Kelowna cannot meet so it will be asking for an extension, the City says in a media release.

Originally the City applied to use Crown land at the end of Rosewood Drive, which is about 1.5 kilometres from the site of the current chlorine-only treatment facility that was built in 1977.

Failing to win provincial support, the City announced today, March 25, that it is spending $915,000 to buy 24 acres at 2010 Bartley Rd.

The new plant will serve 12,000 people currently on the Lakeview Water System — and another 6,000 on the West Kelowna, Pritchard and Sunnyside water systems — once interconnections are made.

Because of the money it had to spend on land and the new location adding to the costs of the project, the City is also looking for additional funding.

The total cost won’t be known until the design of the plant is complete.

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