The harvesters used to control milfoil weed in Okanagan Lake are aging - and a manager with the Okanagan Basin Water Board says they're getting too expensive to maintain.
James Littley says the board put out a request for the design of a new machine, but has not received any proposals.
He says a company in Ontario makes two models, but one is too big to fit down BC highways, and the other is too small for their purposes. Littley there are a couple in the States, but they're not built to Transport Canada specifications.
He says another Regional District discovered this the hard way.
"They had to go through a whole other process of getting Transport Canada approval even though they thought they were getting an out-of-the-box solution. It ended up costing them tens of thousands of extra dollars to hire professionals to do things like stability assessments," he says.
Littley says rototillers used in the winter on Okanagan Lake are also aging - they're 25 years old. The Water Board hopes to buy a new machine soon and a second in a few years. Eurasian Milfoil first showed up in BC lakes in the 1970's.