To the editor:
I attended the Glenmore-Ellison Improvement District (GEID) AGM on April 12 and I wonder why anyone in the GEID’s area would want the City of Kelowna to take over operations of the water utility. The GEID is now providing its Glenmore customers with the best drinking water in Kelowna. The lake intake is 35 metres deep providing high quality, low-risk water and the ultra-violet water treatment facility is up and running. Plans for Ellison residents to receive lake water are now being implemented.
Our water costs through the GEID are moderate with no plans for a rate increase in the foreseeable future while the city water rates will be increasing in the next two years. The city’s agriculture water rates are already higher than the GEID rates. The GEID infrastructure is being paid for and we receive excellent service from the GEID employees. Why would we trust the City of Kelowna to manage our water system when they spent taxpayers’ money on a 40 hour workshop in which 45 per cent of the water users were not represented; a 40 hour workshop to plan our water systems for the next 25 to 50 years, which includes reverting to the use of creek water (Mission Creek).
The last thing we want is to go back to creek water. We celebrated the opening of the Okanagan Lake pump station in early 2014. We have never had such clear, clean water. Residents in the GEID catchment area should run, not walk, away from any plans for the City of Kelowna to take over the utility.
Graeme James, Kelowna