The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) administration is taking on a new look.
The hiring process continues for a new executive director to take over from the departing Anna Warwick Sears, with a successful applicant expected to be named this month.
Warwick Sears has committed to remain on board until sometime in May at the very earliest to help with the transition.
Communications director Corinne Jackson has already stepped down, her position was filled by Carmen Weld.
Weld has lived in the Okanagan for the past 12 years, having worked at local media outlets and most recently in the City of West 琉璃神社 communications department for the past five years.
Applicants are also now being sought to fill pending job openings for water quality project manager and milfoil program operator, a job held by Pat Field for 34 years who is expected to retire this summer.
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The OBWB is raising concerns on the herbicide use front about two products now registered for use in B.C. - an aquatic pesticide formulation of potash and the aquatic herbicide ProcellaCOR FX.
The OBWB stands firmly against the application of these and any other chemicals in Okanagan waters and has received verbal support for that position from the Okanagan Nation Alliance natural resources committee.
"This threat (of herbicide use) will not go away until we get regulatory protections for Okanagan lakes and waterways, posing an ongoing risk to the health of our drinking water. As with all initiatives, we are looking for partners and will take a coordinated approach," says a staff report.
ProcellaCOR FX is a herbicide that can be used to control invasive weed growth in lakes, ponds and other bodies of water, while the potash product is a water treatment chemical.
Chemicals have not been permitted in Okanagan lakes since the 1970s when provincial agencies attempted to use 2,4-D to treat invasive Eurasian water milfoil.
That effort was abandoned after very strong public opposition. However, herbicides continue to be commonly used in the U.S. portion of Osoyoos Lake.
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OBWB deputy administrator James Littley has prepared a presentation about changes needed to provincial policy regarding the prevention of invasive species reaching B.C. waterways.
His presentation is titled Owning Our Destiny with Invasive Species 鈥� Backcasting with 'The Mussel Guy.
His efforts have encouraged letters of support from Boundary-Similkameen MLA Donegal Wilson, Health Officer's Council of B.C., District of Coldstream, District of Lake Country, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, City of 琉璃神社, Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Revelstoke.
Littley provides this intro description of his presentation: "If you could go back in time and change something, what would it be? For invasive mussels, I'd go back to 1985 and change federal law to require cargo ships to exchange their ballast water in the ocean where the salt content would kill anything lurking in their tanks.
"Unfortunately, we don't need knowledge of the future to see what's coming with invasive mussels.'
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Dr. Alberto Ceccacci, a UBCO post-doc researcher from Bologna, Italy, has shared the preliminary findings from his study on how agriculture in the Okanagan Valley relies on water and what that means for the economy, environment and local communities.
Ceccacci's research explored the economic value of irrigated farming, and how future water use and irrigation systems will be impacted by increasing extreme weather events.
His study outlined the direct benefits of agricultural supports and the impact on the broader economy, the future risks for reliance on the many purposes served by water, and the need for cooperation from different water users, especially Indigenous communities, to make fair and balanced water use decisions while discussing further the challenges of arriving at a dollar value on environmental benefits of clean water and healthier ecosystems.
The next step will be a workshop, planned for March or April, to decide on which future water use scenarios should be further analyzed.
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The keynote speaker for the next water stewardship council on Tuesday, March 13, 1 p.m. at the Coast Capri Hotel, will be Zallie Hoff, a UBCO honours undergraduate student, who will present her preliminary findings on Mission Creek groundwater.
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The Okanagan Lake Regulation System (OLRS) dam is a Penticton facility that provides flood control for the Okanagan watershed, operated by the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.
The ORLS manages the lake levels for Okanagan, Skaha and Vaseux lakes, along with the Okanagan River flow between Penticton and Osoyoos Lake.
The current ORLS was constructed between 1950 and 1958, and its current operation plan dates back to 1975.
In 2021, a plan was created, consisting of 18 studies over a seven-year period, culminating in a final report to inform the decision-making process for modernizing the existing ORLS system.
"It is increasingly clear that with aging infrastructure and climate change, the ORLS will no longer be able to provide reliable flood control and drought management," said an OBWB staff report.
While some work has been completed on the study process, due to the project's complexity and low involvement so far of provincial staff, there is still significant work to do, says the report.
"OBWB staff are working to organize this project, creating a new project charter and convening a techin***cal advisory committee to help facilitate the project," said water science specialist Sandra Schira.
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It is shaping up to be another dry summer.
According to the Provincial Snow Supply Bulletin issued on Feb. 1, the provincial snowpack was 72 per cent of normal, while the Okanagan was 84 per cent.
This places the Okanagan snowpack level at its lowest on Feb. 1 since 2017, when an abnormally low mid-season snowpack preceded the largest flood event of the century instigated by excessive spring rainfall events.
As for precipitation, well-below-normal levels have been recorded for the past four months in Vernon, three months in Penticton and six months in 琉璃神社.
