The Thompson-Nicola Regional District is seeking grant funding to conduct a risk and resilience assessment of the 11 community water systems it operates.
TNRD Operations Manager Jamie Vieira says the goal is to identify vulnerabilities in each of these systems that have been brought on by climate change.
“This is not for individual users or individual water systems, their wells or even private water systems,” Vieira said. “This is specifically to the TNRD owned and operated water systems where we’re the actual provider of water.”
“Those [assessments] will be done for the individual systems, depending on the type of water source, so obviously we have ground water sources and some are surface water. “If successful, this grant will have individual studies to look at what the risks are.”
Speaking on NL Newsday, Vieira says these communities water system running dry is the biggest concern right now.
“Generally speaking with the way things have gone this year and the past year, and with climate change in general, we know there is a higher risk of all the systems running out of water, whether it be ground water or surface water,” Vieira said.
“We don’t want to raise any alarm bells, we don’t have any specific areas of immediate concern but we want to prepare for the worst.”
Vieira says this risk assessment is expected to cost about $146,000, based on an assessment by TRUE Consulting Group.
The Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) – Disaster Risk Reduction – Climate Adaptation funding stream that is TNRD is applying for will cover 100 per cent of eligible project costs to a maximum of $150,000.
If the grant application is successful, work on the study is expected to begin in March next year, and be completed by November.
“We don’t know what any of that would look like, but what to the board was just approval to apply for this grant funding and we’re hoping to hear back in early winter if we are successful or not,” Vieira said.
He noted the TNRD would likely apply for additional grant funding in the future to complete any necessary work that is identified by the study.
