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Columbia Shuswap Regional District not taking on new water utilities

Moratorium allows time to review associated strategies and policies
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The Columbia Shuswap Regional District has put a moratorium on on acquiring new water utilities. (File photo)

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District has turned the tap off on acquiring new water utilities.

At the June 19 Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, general manager environment and utility services Ben Van Nostrand presented an in-depth review of the challenges faced by the Utility Services Department and recommended placing a moratorium on acquiring new water utilities.

"Approval of the recommendation in this report and the work associated with reviewing department priorities, will enable the CSRD’s Utility Services Department to develop long-term, sustainable delivery of potable water to current users in existing service areas," wrote Van Nostrand in his report to the July 18 board meeting.  "Furthermore, the department will create a process to consider new requests for system acquisitions in the future."

The board formalized the recommendations that were highlighted and subsequently endorsed at the COW meeting. As well, directors were in support of the moratorium being in place until the CSRD has conducted a review of the strategy and associated policies, and the queue is reduced to three applications, the number recommended in the regional district's policy.

A consultant will be hired to help review department priorities and associated resources required to the tune of
$20,000, which will be funded by the CSRD’s Special Projects function. This potential expense was included in the 2024-2028 Five Year Financial Plan.

In addition, the water utilities strategy requires a strategy review and update, which is supposed to happen every five years but has not been done since 2011. The focus of the new review will be the process involved in acquiring water systems, the service delivery model, and long-term sustainability of the department. 


Van Nostrand, who acquired Utility Services earlier this year, said there are currently eight water system applications in the queue.
"We need to revisit the ones that are in the queue, and determine if they are still wanting us to take over," he said. "We also need to know if they are able to meet the required costs of engineering assessments, connection costs and reserve contribution."

Because of the complexities involved, Van Nostrand said there is no estimation of how long the moratorium will be in place.