Your effluent, my water?

I recently received an 84-cent newsletter from the City of Kelowna and Interior Health, known as the water experts of the valley. 

With a small fee of $86 million, the city will extend the Cedar Creek water pumping station lines to the Southeast Kelowna water district. 

This water from the pumping station is called “clean drinking water,” even though it contains a percentage of sewage effluent. The language “clear water” does not mean “clean water.” Clean water contains no contaminants i.e. sewer plant effluents. 

Interior Health can test the percentage of effluent in the water supply simply by testing for caffeine content, then extrapolating the effluent content from that. They won’t do that, it may not look good.

How does this affect people living in the Hall Road area? We are serviced by a common deep well of clean drinking water, probably the best water in the valley. And now, the city will pump dirty water up from downstream of the sewage plant outfall, charge us higher fees, plus we will have water meters to control our use and to tax us even more. 

I wonder if my tea will taste any different?

West Kelowna is also contemplating spending $42 million on a “filter and treatment plant” for the Rose Valley water system. Would it not be smarter to build a pumping station on Okanagan Lake and force West Kelowna to drink the same sewer plant effluent as we will be forced to?

Why not use it for irrigation instead of being dumped into my drinking glass?

When IH tests the effluent, do they test for all chemical compounds that are present or do they just certify that it is bacteria free (chlorinated to the max)? 

The city and IH cannot or will not see the big picture for the future of our Okanagan Lake, which when contaminated beyond drinking water quality, will be useless for our children and grandchildren.  

Jorgen Hansen, Kelowna