New pipeline won’t get us to emission goals
Dear Editor:
FortisBC Energy has applied to build the Okanagan Capacity Upgrade Project running from Penticton to Chute Lake. This new gas pipeline would serve existing customers and anticipated new customers in the fast-growing Kelowna and Vernon areas.
First Things First Okanagan is a local non-profit society promoting climate action. We believe that constructing new fossil fuel pipelines in the Okanagan doesn’t make sense.
About 30% of our community emissions are from natural gas used to heat homes and buildings. Since local governments are facing a challenge to reduce emissions to meet climate targets, building additional natural gas infrastructure moves us in the wrong direction.
FortisBC Energy’s expansion of the gas market to new customers will make it hard for our region to lower the emissions which are causing global warming.
By requiring new homes to use options other than fossil fuels for home heating, municipalities can stop emissions from trending upward. It is cost effective to install heat pumps or geothermal heating in new builds, but much more difficult and costly to retrofit older homes.
Municipalities around North America are halting new fossil fuel hook ups for home heating. We can do the same thing in British Columbia.
Heat pumps are the most efficient way to heat and cool homes. The new generation of heat pumps can be used to heat homes at temperatures down to -25 C and also provide cooling. The recent BC Coroner’s report outlines the need to cool homes to cope with higher summer temperatures.
FortisBC Energy agrees that emissions need to come down to meet climate targets and is promising to develop biomethane (renewable natural gas) and hydrogen to add to the natural gas stream.
But so far, the Fortis gas stream is only 1% biomethane, nowhere near the 40% reduction we must achieve by 2030.
Given the climate emergency that we are all coming to grips with, we believe energy companies need to reconsider their business model and support clean energy. Fortis, after all, provides electricity to most of the Southern Interior so could shift their corporate focus.
Imagine life without polluting emissions coming from fossil fuel use in our homes and our vehicles. Let’s take a pass on new gas lines in our communities.
Margaret Holm, First Things First Okanagan, Penticton
Cougar in a tree excites neighbourhood
Dear Editor:
Annoyed by his dog’s incessant barking, “Garry” (not his real name) looked out the kitchen window to see what the fuss was about. It was sunrise on May 25, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
He watched in amazement as a young cougar strolled down his driveway. The place was just off of Rittich Road in the Ellison district.
When the 18-month-old wild cat sensed it had been spotted, it swiftly clambered up a nearby 11-metre spruce tree. Once the cat reached the top, it sat quietly with its back to them.
“You’re never going to believe what I am looking at,” the neighbour exclaimed to Norm Duncan on the phone.
“Come quick if you want to see a cougar,” Garry said before hanging up. Norman and his wife, Lenore, hopped in the truck and came straight away to check it out.
The puma thought it was hiding in the thick green branches; however, its long twitching tail betrayed it.
Garry phoned for assistance and some conservation officers were dispatched. Hence, the trio sat safely in their vehicles until help arrived.
After the officer shot the animal with a tranquillizer gun, it rested on the branches, and dropped onto a tarp held up by the men. They quickly blindfolded the unconscious animal and inspected its body. They found the young female to be in good shape with a healthy coat. The officers took some blood samples and put a tracking collar on it.
From here-on-in, the device would transmit a signal every two hours, revealing the cat’s location. The game wardens then loaded up the creature; put it in a crate and drove away, only to let it loose nearby.
Every mountain lion has its own territory and this one may have still been with its mother, as they raise their cubs until they’re 18 to 24 months old. However the queens only nurse them the first seven weeks of life.
A female kitten has a better chance of staying alive than her brothers, but it was imperative to keep her in her home range, because cougars are territorial.
Toms will defend their area from trespassers, and this youngster wouldn’t stand a chance.
Before parting, the officers asked the Duncans to tell their neighbours to keep their pets and other smaller animals in a shelter at night.
That is sound advice for everyone.
Doreen Zyderveld-Hagel, Kelowna
Forever home in Okanagan now costs too much
Dear Editor:
I would like to address the current housing situation.
After being widowed in 2016, my brother encouraged me to move back home — home being the Okanagan Valley. We moved to Summerland originally in 1960.
Although we eventually moved back to the U.S., we spent every summer in the valley.
In the 1980s, I came back and spent three of the best years of my life working for Apex year round. I lived above the Gun Barrell and got an extra $50 month for snow report. The next year, I lived in Dave Bett’s unit in Beaconsfield. I love it here.
Penticton is a city of seniors, but everyone is too concerned about bringing in more people, more dollars. What about us seniors and the worker bees that are having their homes sold out from under them?
I thought I had it made — five years — it was to be my forever home.
Wrong. I have pretty much decided that it appears that I will be living in a tent along the creek.
It sold for an obscene price. There is nowhere to move. But let’s build a boatload of expensive abodes for the rich.
Think about that suggestion for a smaller footprint on Spiller Road and tiny houses for us local seniors, et al.
Rikka McCarthy, Penticton
New subdivisions should have a dual water system
Dear Editor:
Many experts have pointed out over the past few years that we waste a considerable amount of treated drinking water by using it to flush toilets, water the garden, clean the car, etc.
As our cities expand, the demand for water increases and the treatment plants will need expansion and/or replacement at considerable expense to the city taxpayers.
The blame for this lies with the fact that we have slavishly followed the design for municipal infrastructure initiated by Victorian engineers.
Of course, water treatment plants didn’t exist in their day, so we have tweaked our design to accommodate these new facilities. Experts tell us that it would be far more cost effective in the long run if we built our houses with two water systems; one for treated drinking water and the other for water which has not been subjected to this expensive process.
Penticton has a system for distributing untreated water. We use it to irrigate our parks, sporting fields, etc. People will have noticed signs displayed at public parks warning that the water used by the irrigation system is not suitable for drinking.
So why don’t we use it to allow for any new subdivisions to use drinking water more sparingly?
All that would be required for the developer would be to make an adjustment to the plumbing system in each house to accommodate the dual system. This should not be too onerous a task provided that the design work was done before construction commenced.
The city would have to connect the new subdivision to the untreated water supply which should simply mean adding an additional pipe to the trench built to accommodate water and sewer facilities.
So why doesn’t the city make it a condition of granting the building permit for a new subdivision that all properties in the development be built to double system standard?
The future savings to the city compared to using the current system would be significant. Presently, we have at least two new subdivisions awaiting final approval.
Penticton could become known as “the city which showed the way.”
Brian Butler, Penticton
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Email letters to: letters@ok.bc.ca
