The Cost of Doing Nothing

Case Studies that Demonstrate the Cost of Doing Nothing

Protecting source water is often easier and more cost effective than treatment alone or dealing with the aftermath of contamination events. Canadian examples: $65 million to deal with a PCB leak that contaminated a Niagara aquifer (Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, 2014). $64 million on the Walkerton tragedy … 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.