The District of Summerland is excited to announce they are the proud recipient of the Brian Harvey Award of Excellence from the Water Supply Association of BC. This award is given to a Public or Corporate Body that has demonstrated a high standard of service to the public. This is not necessarily given out annually, only when there is a deserving recipient who has proven excellence in innovative or unique solutions to water supply/quality problems, efficiency improvements, water/energy conservation as well as employee training, public information and money management.
Summerland earned the award by actions taken to ensure the District has safe drinking water and ample water for residents and agricultural users.
"We are thrilled to receive this award. Summerland has been committed to investing in our water resource for many years—whether it be upgrading infrastructure in a fiscally responsible manner, providing professional development opportunities for staff, or encouraging our residents to conserve water," stated Mayor Toni Boot. "The total water demand for the community dropped from 14,000 to 9,000 ML/year and Water Treatment Plant peak demands decreased from 112 ML/day to below 68 ML/day. The entire community receives safe, filtered domestic water and everyone is aware of the importance of conserving water. That is something to be proud of!"
Over the years, Summerland made water its priority by raising Thirsk Dam to stabilize the raw water supply, building a Water Treatment Plant (WTP), and creating a Water Master Plan that provided guidance to waters system separation, supply stability and water use efficiencies.
The Prairie Valley area was separated in 2019/10 to reduce the amount being treated by the WTP. Later the Garnet Valley area was separated to provide domestic water to those customers and open up more capacity for raw water from the Garnet Reservoir to service the agricultural lands in the community. In an effort to conserve water, metered metering program took place with a pricing system based on allocation of set flow rates and annual depths to arable land parcels.