-Connecting to town's sewers still best option: RDOS-

OSOYOOS TIMES-June 25, 2008-

By Chad IngramrnOsoyoos Times

Osoyoos's mayor said last week that a contingency plan put forth by the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) for sewage disposal at the proposed Willow Beach Resort is not up to snuff.
The subject was brought up at a June 19 RDOS board meeting when a phased development agreement for the proposed 1,088-unit Willow Beach project was given first and second readings by the RDOS rural board.
The agreement states that, if passed, the housing development be built in phases over time.
The agreement also states that sanitary sewage collection and treatment be dealt with by agreement with the Town of Osoyoos or with the regional district for a regional system.
In May, Osoyoos Mayor John Slater signed a memorandum of understanding with Willow Beach developer Robert Wilson agreeing that if the resort is approved by the RDOS, the Town of Osoyoos would accommodate the development's waste into its sewage system.
This option would be the healthiest for the lake and should really be the only one considered, Slater said in a June 20 interview.
Slater, who is also a RDOS board member, said the construction of a sewage treatment plant by the RDOS would mean outflows running onto riparian areas, into the oxbows at the north end of Osoyoos Lake, or into the lake itself.
I think it's absolutely ridiculous with the kind of knowledge we have on phosphate pollution that we would possible endanger the lake by raising water temperature as well as putting phosphates into the lake, he said.
Not only would such a facility have negative environmental impacts on the lake, Slater said, it would also be burdensome to RDOS Area A taxpayers, since the facility would not be running at full capacity for the first several years of its existence.
RDOS Rural Area A Director Mark Pendergraft said Slater's concerns are legitimate, but he insisted that a new sewage treatment plant is only a contingency plan.
I understand his concern, Pendergraft said. It is not our intent to have another sewage treatment plant. That is only there as a backup scenario.
Pendergraft also said that such a facility would service not only Willow Beach, but other parts of Area A as well.
He said, however, that connecting the proposed resort to Osoyoos's sewage system is still the preference of the RDOS.
As long as it's cost effective, that would be the preferred option, Pendergraft said.
Slater said that once the town's system reaches capacity, a spray-effluent treatment plant could be built, at the developer's expense, near the Osoyoos landfill, with its effluent used to water area orchards or possibly the Osoyoos cemetery.
It's a good use of unusable land, he said.
As part of the memorandum of understanding signed with the Town of Osoyoos, the developer of the resort has agreed to provide funding for the completion of the RDOS's Northwest Sewer Project, if the resort is approved.
There is an approximate $2-million shortfall on the sewage project, which would hook 121 homes along Osoyoos Lake up to the town's sewage system.
The RDOS received a $4.5-million grant from the provincial and federal governments for the project last summer.
Pendergraft and Slater have said they would like to see construction on the project begin before the end of this year.
For Slater, another qualm with the Willow Beach phased development agreement is a suggested fire hall site for the property.
He said that because the closest fire fighters would be six kilometres away in Osoyoos, the developers would be better off to take the value of the 0.2 hectares allotted for a fire hall and put it into new equipment for the Rural Osoyoos Fire District.
Two public hearings, one on the phased development agreement for the proposed Willow Beach Resort and one on the development of the resort itself, will take place in the gymnasium of the Sonora Community Centre on July 9.
The hearings are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
reporter@osoyoostimes.comrn