City of West Kelowna

City of West Kelowna Long-Term Monitoring Identified Unprecedented Turbidity

Long-term data helped identify the cause of abrupt high turbidity in a reservoir that had been stable for 32 years of monitoring. This case involved a change in the amount of nitrogen delivered from the Lambly watershed. Without this dataset, the cause (and potential solutions) would remain a mystery.

Rose Valley Reservoir Watershed Wildfire in 2015

In the past two decades, there have been four wildfires (2005, 2009, 2015 and 2020) caused by recreational carelessness in the tiny Rose Valley Reservoir watershed. This is a terminal reservoir for the City of West Kelowna, with no further opportunities for natural purification. The distribution system commences at the … Read more

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We are all downstream.

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A healthy watershed is central to clean and abundant source water.

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Establishing setbacks, restoring riparian buffer zones along watercourses, and acquiring watershed segments can save money by preventing costly impacts to source water.

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British Columbia legislation related to source water protection is complicated, and the Government of British Columbia does not have a lead water agency.

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Local action supported by stable funding and consistent and coordinated approaches is imperative to maintaining source water quality.

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Funding for this project was provided by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Interior Health Authority, City of Kelowna, City of West Kelowna and the Okanagan Basin Water Board. This project was also supported through the Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which is delivered by the Real Estate Foundation of BC and Watersheds BC, with financial support from the Province of British Columbia as part of its $10-billion COVID-19 response.