The City of Kamloops will be decommissioning the Noble Creek Irrigation System this fall, leaving its roughly 40 users to find another source of water.

Utility Services Manager, Greg Wightman, says the decision was made due to severe erosion near the water system’s intake along the North Thompson River.

“[It went] to the point where we had to declare a state of local emergency earlier this year and do some emergency work just to get though this season,” Wightman said.

“The challenge is those emergency works may need to be removed. Any time you do that, you have to reassess it after the threat has subsided. We don’t know the longevity of the work that we did, if its going to be able to remain.”

Just last year, the City of Kamloops approved $3 million in much needed upgrades to try and keep the Noble Creek Irrigation System operational until 2028.

“But the erosion has just accelerated so quickly out there that we can’t protect that intake anymore,” Wightman added.

“We’re unlikely to be able to operate it much longer, so the new direction from council now is to decommission it at the end of this irrigation season. We’re developing a decommissioning program where we’ll be offering money to the current customers to transition off the system.”

It is not clear how much of that $3-million has been spent, though Wightman says some of that money is now expected to go towards the decommissioning program.

“Our decommissioning program isn’t quite finalized yet so we don’t have all of the numbers but that is kind of the concept here,” he said.

“We’re trying to shift some of the focus of the things that we were going to do and just acknowledging that its probably not going to be effective so trying to transition that money over to the customers to help ease them off the system and onto their own systems.”

Users of the Noble Creek Irrigation System will be able to meet with city staff and council on Monday to discuss the next steps as both sides work towards a solution.

Wightman says the decision to decommission the system was made in a closed meeting on May 30, and that the affected property owners were contacted directly and invited to Monday’s meeting.