Kelowna News

Despite a 20% reduction in water consumption since meters were installed 12 years ago, Kelowna and the Okanagan is still one of the largest per capita users of water on the planet.

That from Utility Services Manager, Don Degen, during an update of Kelowna's Water Sustainability Action Plan.

"The per capita water usage average across the country is in the neighbourhood of 300 to 350 litres per day. Here in Kelowna, we're in excess of that by two to two-and-a-half times," says Degen.

"When we look at some of the communities in the Midwest of the United States that have very similar weather patterns that we do, they've actually got per capital water use rates that are the same or, in some cases significantly less than what you would expect in Edmonton, Winnipeg or Vancouver."

Degen says Kelowna is moving in the right direction, but in terms of other similar cities in the world, "we have a long way to go."

According to Degen, outdoor water use, specifically irrigation, is the biggest culprit when it comes to water use in the Central Okanagan.

"It's important for us to come up with way to reduce consumption on the inside, but the real big ticket is what's going on the ground."

Councillor Andre Blanleil, who recently vacationed in Scottsdale, Arizona, says he's not sure if Kelowna citizens are ready for desert type landscaping featuring lots of rock.

"The community tells us that we still want the community to be green, but there are ways to achieve that by using less," added Degen.

"The landscape and irrigation standards that we're going to bring to council for a first look at in the next few weeks is going to allow for our community to still look very much the way we want it to look. At the same time we're going to be able to reduce what's going on the ground."

Neil Klassen with H2Okanagan agreed with Degen, saying when it comes to indoor water use, there is no net loss. What comes into the home goes back into the lake.

It's much different when talking about outdoor use.

"When water is applied on lawns and gardens, you'd be surprised that most of it doesn't end up back in the lake, it actually evaporates, goes up into the atmosphere and gets blown away to somewhere else," says Klassen.

"What's the net loss to the water in the lake from landscape irrigation, I couldn't tell you. It's probably not really significant but bare in mind that most of the water we put on our landscape does not actually drain back into the aquifers and go back into the lake."

Klassen says the water that does return to the lake usually carries with it pesticides and fertilizers.

Kelowna is hoping to reduce water consumption a further 15% by 2012.