By Chad Klassen

Westsyde farmer says he’d shut down operation if city stops maintaining irrigation system

Dec 13, 2018 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — There are concerns among farmers in Westsyde who fear their main source of water could cease to exist if the city decides to shut down the Noble Creek irrigation system. 

It’s one of three options the city has outlined to more than 30 property owners in the area. If it comes to a total shutdown — it would mean the end for Gerd Dessau and his wife Pat — who have been operating their farm in Westsyde for 25 years.

“We would have to shut it down,” says Dessau. “I’d probably end up selling all the equipment and our business would go to zero.”

The Dessaus grow hay and sell to ranchers all around the province. Water is the essence of their business. 

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The irrigation system serves 36 property owners in the area and has been operational for 50 years. But the City of Kamloops says it’s becoming too expensive to maintain. 

“The amount of revenue that we are receiving from the rate payer does not cover our operations and maintenance annual cost,” says Director of Civic Operations Jen Fretz. “We’re getting about 10 to 15 per cent revenue based on the money it takes to operate the system.”

It costs the city $250,000 every year to keep the system going. In a letter sent to property owners last month, the city outlined three options: transferring the irrigation system to the users, selling the system, or decommissioning the system altogether.

But farmers out here in Westsyde say there’s no other options other than the city continuing to maintain the irrigation system itself.

Dessau says when the city took over the system from B.C. Fruitlands in 1974, it operated it as a utility. He feels the city should be the ones responsible for providing the water. 

“We’re farmers. We’re not engineers. We couldn’t run a big utility like this,” says Dessau. “They made a utility of it. At one time, there was two or three people on it. Now there are about 35, so it’s a nightmare.”

Down the road, rancher Jon Peachey has a 200-acre cattle-cow operation — one of the biggest properties on the irrigation system. He fears the production of hay — which he feeds to his 250 cattle — will slow significantly.

“I rely extensively on city water. I raise three crops of hay per year, and without city water, without convenient city water, we would have one small crop rather than three good crops,” notes Peachey, who’s been on the property for six years. “I feed 95 per cent of the feed that I raise on the ranch is spent on my own cattle. I sell a small portion of hay.”

Peachey, who has millions of dollars invested in his ranch, can’t shut down like the Dessaus. He argues 50 years after the system began, water demands remain high and it should stay with the city. 

“They had the vision to create this system that has created this nice little green oasis of urban agriculture within the city limits. The current city council doesn’t have the vision and the wherewithal to find a way to continue to operate, so that we have this water that’s essential to opeartions. I find that disgraceful.”

The City of Kamloops is hosting a public meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday evening (Dec. 13) to discuss the options.