In the finale of this four-story series, we look at what the reduced snowpack means for agriculture in the Creston Valley. In case you missed them, read part one on , part two on , and part three on .
High temperatures, a declining snowpack and impending water shortages are a climate change trend that have farmers in the Creston Valley worried.
Raj Smagh, who has farmed just under 100 acres of cherries since 2010, says farmers have had several bad years of either no crop or poor ones.
91裸聊视频淚t has been like this for three or four years,91裸聊视频� he says. 91裸聊视频淪urviving has become very hard for farmers. Usually you can have a bad year and survive, but this is the fourth year. The scale is not balanced any more.91裸聊视频�
In February, all of the 35-40 commercial cherry farmers in the area lost this year91裸聊视频檚 crop due to an extreme frost that fell to -28 C in February. The frost killed the parts of the flowers that make the fruit.
But it was not the frost alone that did the damage, says longtime Creston orchardist and market gardener Frank Wloka.
91裸聊视频淭he cold was the final straw, but the part that killed the trees was nine weeks of abnormally warm temperatures (beforehand).91裸聊视频�
Because of the unseasonably warm weather, the trees had come out of dormancy, making them vulnerable to frost when the temperature dropped.
Wloka says some of his trees are now collapsing and dying because of damage to the cambium layer, which feeds any buds that may have survived.
91裸聊视频淭his is my first experience of losing a crop and then losing the trees,91裸聊视频� he says.
In 2021, much of the crop was lost because of heat and drought, and the two ensuing years were worryingly dry, with concerns about whether the area91裸聊视频檚 main water source, Arrow Creek, was up to the task of irrigating the crop through to harvest time.
One morning in July 2021, a group of 38 residents of South Canyon got a surprise when they turned on their taps. 91裸聊视频淣othing,91裸聊视频� says Brad Ziefflie, one of the residents. 91裸聊视频淣o water.91裸聊视频�
In the rural community southeast of Creston, the water bubbles up from a groundwater spring into a containment structure, then flows into a local distribution system. The residents had been observing a drastic drop in the water level over a few days, and then suddenly it was dry.
They relied on bottled water as well as on water transported from Creston for 18 days until their supply inexplicably returned.
Ziefflie says nothing like this had happened before, and the community lives with the uncertainty of 91裸聊视频渘ot knowing when it is going to happen again, and knowing it probably will.91裸聊视频�
The South Canyon incident acted as a wake-up call for the Creston Valley, heightening local awareness of the precarious nature of their water supply in a time of climate change.
The Creston area is the most extensive and productive agricultural area in the West Kootenay, with open, wide valleys that produce and export field crops, tree fruits, beef, dairy products and wine.
Concerns about water led to a decision in April by the Regional District of Central Kootenay to commission a $100,000 engineering study on possible additional water sources for the area, with the initial report due in December.
Wloka says it is 91裸聊视频渆xtraordinarily important91裸聊视频� that the RDCK is doing this, but he fears that it has come too late and the process will take longer than the urgency of the situation requires.
91裸聊视频淲e are in a terrible situation for water supply in the whole area,91裸聊视频� he says.
Arrow Creek: is it enough?
The West Kootenay snowpack was only at 72 per cent of normal this year on April 1, according to the province91裸聊视频檚 monthly Snow Survey and Water Supply Bulletin.
91裸聊视频淭his year because we had such a warm winter, we did not get the snowpack accumulation we normally get91裸聊视频�,91裸聊视频� says Calvin Beebe, a provincial government hydrologist based in the Kootenays, 91裸聊视频渨hich means in order to get through the summer months we will be more reliant on precipitation to feed stream flow.91裸聊视频�
Water supply depends not just on the snowpack but on the timing of precipitation. The ideal situation, according to Beebe, is 91裸聊视频渨ater in the right place at the right time for people to use.91裸聊视频�
Southeastern B.C., he says, has seen drier conditions over the past three years than in the previous 10, and that this amounts to 91裸聊视频渇airly significant drought.91裸聊视频�
Most of the domestic and irrigation water in the Creston and Erickson area (with the exception of some wells) comes from Arrow Creek, a tributary of the Goat River that flows through Creston and Erickson before it joins the Kootenay River.
Beebe says what determines water availability for the community is the low flow, rather than year-round average. This is because minimum flows usually occur in the late summer, when demand is the highest.
Since 2017, minimum flows in Arrow Creek have been well below the average annual minimum. August streamflows in Arrow Creek have also been below the long-term monthly mean since 2012.
The water plant on Arrow Creek, owned and run by the RDCK, diverts water at a maximum rate of 320 litres per second from the creek, treats it, then releases it into the water distribution system to about 600 users 91裸聊视频� a mix of farms, residences, and businesses.
In a hot summer, this diversion and treatment takes up more than half the creek, says head plant operator Allan Richardson. Some farmers say that in the late summer the plant91裸聊视频檚 maximum output is sometimes not enough for their needs.
91裸聊视频淪ome years we can just barely keep up,91裸聊视频� says Richardson. 91裸聊视频淚n the heat of the summer, agriculture takes the majority of the consumption.91裸聊视频�
The treatment process that Richardson oversees includes screening and settling, and then treatment with membrane filtration for physical removal of microbiological components, and ultraviolet light and chlorination disinfection of bacteria and viruses.
Don Low is a retired orchardist and agricultural economist who, from 1992 to 2003, was the district agriculturalist (a provincial government job that no longer exists) for the area. He currently sits on an RDCK advisory committee on water issues in Creston.
Low says treating irrigation water to such an advanced degree is unnecessary and expensive. He says the plant, constructed in the late 1990s, is 91裸聊视频渁 Mercedes Benz system, when all we needed was a Chevrolet.91裸聊视频�
The RDCK built the water plant in the late 1990s, he says, after Interior Health decided the water from Arrow Creek needed treatment. To avoid a conflict with a local anti-chlorination lobby, the RDCK installed a plant with advanced technology that would require only minimal chlorination but rely on an advanced filtering system that Low says 91裸聊视频渇ar exceeded anything that would be normally put in to treat irrigation water.91裸聊视频�
The filtration plant costs hundreds of thousands of dollars every four years just to replace its filter cartridges, Low says, adding that this contributes to the high rates farmers pay the RDCK for water 91裸聊视频� about $350 per acre this year, up from $20 per year before the new system was installed.
91裸聊视频淭here are two issues,91裸聊视频� Low says. 91裸聊视频淥ne is the peak demand of the plant 91裸聊视频� they are at their capacity 91裸聊视频� and the other is a decrease in Arrow Creek flow, which is alarming. So we91裸聊视频檝e got an extremely expensive water system that 91裸聊视频� barely provides enough water for current demand, and doesn91裸聊视频檛 provide enough water for future demand.91裸聊视频�
Will the Arrow Creek distribution system run out of water?
91裸聊视频淒uring the heat dome in 2021 it was close,91裸聊视频� Low says. 91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 a lot of water comes down in the spring. But in the summer, it can be just not much more than a trickle.91裸聊视频�
Low says the water for irrigation should instead be pumped into the system from the Kootenay River. This may be one of the options considered in the new RDCK feasibility study.
The scope of that study includes a forecast of water needs for agricultural, domestic and other uses; recommendations of feasible additional sources; and an estimate of the costs and required infrastructure for each. The budget for the feasibility study is $100,000, with $75,000 of this funded by the provincial government.
Yaqan Nukiy
To the uncertainty about water for households, orchards, gardens, vineyards, and businesses, add Yaqan Nukiy91裸聊视频檚 (Lower Kootenay Band91裸聊视频檚) concern about fish.
91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檝e always been interested in making sure that the kokanee have a good spawning habitat,91裸聊视频� says Isaac Dekker, watershed stewardship co-ordinator for the band. 91裸聊视频淚n theory the Goat River should be a good place for fish to spawn, and yet year on year we have noticed very few spawners.91裸聊视频�
At the Arrow Creek water plant, there is a fish ladder in the creek so fish can bypass the infrastructure. Plant operator Richardson says he rarely sees fish using it.
Dekker, who is a PhD candidate in hydrology, says the band is doing water monitoring on the Goat River, looking at volume, temperature, and sediment in the river.
91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e not saying that bad habitat in the Goat is the cause of lack of kokanee. I think that would be too simplistic. There91裸聊视频檚 many causes for the kokanee collapse.91裸聊视频�
This flow monitoring is a part of a much larger multi-year Yaqan Nukiy project: a Goat River cumulative effects study that is looking at the cumulative impacts of land use changes. This includes agriculture, but also forestry, which Dekker says can have a significant impact on snowpacks.
Will the various demands on limited water set up a competition between different user groups?
91裸聊视频淚 think there often is (a conflict of priorities) with water issues,91裸聊视频� Dekker says. 91裸聊视频淏ut I don91裸聊视频檛 think that it necessarily means that we can91裸聊视频檛 find a common solution.91裸聊视频�
MELTDOWN:
91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频�
