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Black Mountain Irrigation District History

Black Mountain Irrigation District is an Improvement District which is an autonomous local government body responsible for providing one or more local services for the benefit of the residents in a community. Improvement districts are brought into existence by the province through a Cabinet Order and approved by the Lieutenant Governor in Council which authorizes the passage of a document known as Letters Patent. Some of the provisions contained in the Letters Patent are the name of the improvement district, its boundary and the services which it intends to provide.

The affairs of every improvement district are directed by elected trustees, one of whom acts as chair. Each trustee is elected for a three-year term by the eligible landowners of the improvement district. The powers that are exercised by the trustees include the ability to enact and enforce its regulations and charges, to assess and collect taxes, to acquire, hold and dispose of lands, to borrow money and to expropriate lands required to carry out its objects. These powers are enacted by the trustees through the passage of written documents known as bylaws; and must be approved by the Inspector of Municipalities.

BMID History

The Black Mountain Irrigation District is the outcome of the amalgamation of several irrigation systems.

In the year 1904, the Rutland Estates commenced intensive development. Requiring water for irrigation purposes, water was being obtained from Mission Creek.

In 1907, the Central Okanagan Land and Orchard Company undertook the subdivision of approximately 1500 acres and constructed a ditch about five (5) miles long to bring water from Kelowna Creek (Mill Creek).

In 1909 the Belgo Canadian Fruit Land Company commenced development of 6,000 acres of land lying east and southeast of the Rutland Estates and Central Okanagan Lands. To irrigate these lands, the company constructed a ditch 14 miles long from Belgo Creek (then called the North Fork of Mission Creek).

The original irrigation works were constructed around 1910 and were laid out as an open ditch system. During the period of the First World War, the irrigation works of all three started showing signs of deterioration due mainly to negligence and improper maintenance. Urgent system modifications and replacements became necessary. To finance these works, the district borrowed from the Provincial Conservation Fund which had been established in 1918 to provide loans for rebuilding irrigation systems for which money to replace structures was otherwise available.

While in 1920 the irrigation companies did not appear to be in serious financial difficulty, it was readily seen that the area of land which had been developed under the system was totally inadequate to bear the whole expense of maintaining the works, and that trouble would arise shortly. It was then suggested that an amalgamation of these three systems would best serve their interests.

To give effect to this arrangement, the three systems were purchased by the Black Mountain Irrigation District incorporation under the "Water Act". Black Mountain Irrigation District was now established under the British Columbia Water Act under Letters Patent issued on November 3, 1920. The objects of the District were described as "the supply and distribution of water for irrigation and other purposes, and all things incidental thereto". The first meeting of the Black Mountain Irrigation was held on Tuesday, November 23, 1920, and the first board of trustees elected were: C.H. Bond, E.M. Carruthers, E. Mugford, W.R. Reed and S.F. Workman. Secretary was J.R. Beale Engineer G. Stirling.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the system underwent a major rehabilitation to provide a pressurized and combined irrigation and domestic water supply to all farm areas of the district. This rehabilitation was carried out under financing structure of the Agricultural Rehabilitation and Development Act (ARDA). The district now supplies irrigation water to about 5000 acres (2025 hectares) of agricultural land and provides potable domestic water to 6300 residential services comprising of approximately 12,000 acres.

Belgo Dam (Ideal Lake) James Lake (Trapper Lake)

BMID Supply Area

The Black Mountain Irrigation District (BMID) services lands along the eastern limits of the city. The district is bounded by Mission Creek to the south, an old irrigation flume right-of-way at the 635m elevation and unserviced range land to the east, the Rutland Waterworks District (RWD) and Highway 97 to the west, and the Glenmore-Ellison Improvement District (GEID) and the unserviced Regional District lands to the north.

The land use in the district is primarily residential in the lower areas on the Rutland flatlands and agricultural in the eastern slopes. Irrigation for agriculture is the largest water use in the district.

BMID Water Sources

The primary source of water is Mission Creek. The BMID, using five storage reservoirs in the Mission Creek watershed, captures snowmelt runoff in the spring. This water is released to Mission Creek and collected at a lower level intake where it enters the distribution system. Upper level reservoirs are Fish Hawk Lake (1,850 da-m3), Graystoke Lake (4,500 da-m3), Ideal Lake (6,780 da-m3) and Loch Long (710 da-m3). In the past twenty years the snowpack has always been adequate to fill these reservoirs.

The largest secondary source is Scotty Creek in the north end of the district. There are two upper level storage reservoirs, James Lake (1,774 da-m3) and Little Trapper Lake (560 da-m3). Other sources of water include two wells in the Scotty Creek subdivision that provide domestic and irrigation water for the local subdivision and nearby agricultural lands. A high capacity well on Cornish Road provides a source of water to the lower area in times of emergency.

In total, BMID has 13,850 da-m3 of licensed storage in the Mission Creek watershed and 2,334 da-m3 of storage in the Scotty Creek watershed. Licensing for withdrawals on Mission Creek include 17,865 da-m3 for irrigation and another 3,495 da-m3 for waterworks purposes.

BMID Water Distribution

Water is captured three miles east of the city limits at a creek intake at the 654m elevation. Two settling basins 154 da-m3 and 42 da-m3 in size allow sediment and larger particles in the water to settle prior to entering the transmission and distribution systems. Water is chlorinated at the outlet from the smaller settling basin and then conveyed through a large conduit along the slopes of the

Mission Creek valley at the 638m elevation to a 900m long tunnel that runs through the shoulder of Black Knight Mountain. The water is fed to the majority of the water system by gravity with the exception of three local areas where pumping is required.

Presently the water system relies on large trunk mains to feed water to the agricultural areas. The watermains are not looped and the district is working towards providing secondary connections to most of the singularly fed areas

BMID Long Term Servicing Plan

The major expansion item is the Black Mountain Reservoir. The 4,650 da-m3 reservoir will allow the district the flexibility of not having to draw water from Mission Creek during spring freshet. It will provide BMID with low level storage and will allow the district to supply peak hourly flows beyond the capacity of the supply conduit from Mission Creek. A large trunk main is planned along the east bench of the district to provide supply to the north lands. Secondary connections are planned throughout the district.

The water system improvements needed to service areas outside district boundaries are not identified since boundary expansion must first be approved by the district.