Green light for wetland plan

Photo: Contributed

A recommendation five years in the making was approved during the RDOS committee of the whole meeting on Thursday, in relation to a wetland project north of Vaseux Lake.

The board approved staff's recommendation to commit $700,000 for constructing a wetland, adjacent to the OK Falls wastewater treatment plant. 

Those funds will come from the Electoral Area D community works fund. The wetland project will cost just over $1M. 

The RDOS was granted $360,911 in 2012, as a Regionally Specific Projects gas tax fund, intended to move the wetland project forward.

That gas tax grant is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2018 if the funds are not used before then, with a catch that all funding for a project has to be secured before the money is granted.

With the timeline less than a year away, the RDOS ramped up talks for spending the grant in the past two board meetings.

Two weeks ago, RDOS staff recommended those funds be reallocated for a sewage system extension project, before Thursday's recommendation indicated a renewed commitment to funding a wetland project.

"Once we have what we believe to be the amount of money required for the estimate, then we can sign the contract for the gas tax funds and then we can get started," RDOS chief administrative officer Bill Newell said.

Board members still need to give their final stamp of approval on the project, which they are expected to do when the decision is tabled again on Nov. 16.