Noble Creek rancher Jon Peachey has 280 acres and pays $10,000 a year for irrigation. He fears a new $14 million system would put many out of business (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

NOBLE CREEK IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Noble Creek farmers pushing to pay more for water rates instead of new system

Dec 9, 2020 | 3:05 PM

KAMLOOPS — Jon Peachey has 280 acres of land in Noble Creek. He cares for about 300 cattle. It’s his livelihood, but that is in the balance depending on what the City decides to do with the Noble Creek Irrigation System.

“We need to find a long-term solution. Farms take long-term planning and to be revisiting this every year or two, and not having certainly, is not the way to run any enterprise, particularly a farm,” said Peachey.

The City proposed a new $14 million system that would have seen about 50 Noble Creek users pay 80 per cent of the cost. It would have cost Peachey $2.6 million and his entire life savings. He says it would be cheaper to install his own irrigation system at a cost of between $300,000 and $400,000.

The users currently pay $84 per acre. Peachey’s irrigation bill is $10,000 every year. That compares to the $100 per acre that farmers in Kelowna pay for their irrigation. The Noble Creek users say they have no problem paying their fair share — it just has to be viable.

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“There’s nobody on the Noble Creek Irrigation System that is looking for cheaper irrigation rates than what is standard in the Southern Interior. We are willing to pay competitive rates.”

For the City, it’s been a challenging problem for staff to solve. On Tuesday (Dec. 8), council deferred a decision on the system until next year. The system will operate now until September, 2023.

“[The decision] will require $1.7 million worth of work to be invested in that system just to make sure it can keep operating,” said the City’s utility services manager, Greg Wightman.

Kamloops taxpayers will foot most of that bill, but at Tuesday’s council meeting, it was decided the users would pay a 15 per cent annual rate increase moving forward. Peachey says such a rate increase may eventually become problematic as well if it continues into the long-term, but is better than paying millions for a new system.

However, beyond the September 2023 date, the City believes $14 million will need to be spent to upgrade the 52-year-old system.

“A lot of that work is becoming fairly urgent,” said Wightman. “There’s a $1 million erosion protection project that’s required just upstream of the intake that we feel needs to be done. We’re starting to lose material above the intake and it’s starting to threaten the intake.”

The question remains: who will pay for all the upgrades? City staff has been directed to apply for federal and provincial grants, even though Wightman says non-potable water grants are tough to earn. The City is also hoping the province, which handed the system over to Kamloops in 1974, will step up to help.

“We’ve been in communication with the Ministry of Agriculture in particular,” Wightman said. “Certainly they’ve been advocating on behalf of the users for the City to continue running the system. I think that’s the best-case scenario for the ministry, and that’s one of the groups we will be pursuing in saying if that’s the view of the ministry, then please come with some money.”

A task force with City staff and Noble Creek users will be set up soon. Peachey is hopeful it can help find a solution.