West Bench
The West Bench Irrigation District was created in 1953, more than a decade before the establishment of regional districts in British Columbia. The WBID has its own elected board of trustees, taxing authority, and website (http://westbenchirrigation.org).
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Update June 2011: At the request of the West Bench Irrigation District’s (WBID) Board of Trustees, the Province of British Columbia has officially dissolved WBID and transferred responsibility for the West Bench water system to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
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Recent changes in drinking water policy by Interior Health Authority (IHA) mean that the delivery of water on the West Bench is likely to change in the near future. Specifically, IHA now requires that drinking water be treated twice (WBID’s current system provides only single-stage chlorine treatment). An additional treatment stage—filtration or ultra-violet—requires significant capital investment; however, the Province of British Columbia has stipulated that provincial grants for such upgrades can only be awarded to municipalities or regional districts, not irrigation districts.
Additional background information is available from the main RDOS web site.
