How an Ancient Technology Supplies Climate-Smart Water to Kootenay Producers
Written by Sarah Hirschfeld
Lush green rolling hills amidst a decade of chronic droughts and wildfires; what makes Edgewater BC so special? Must be the water. Not something in the water necessarily, but rather how it arrives at 95 farms and ranches plus the local golf course.
Brock Elliott of Elliott’s Rocky Mountain Farm is a community member, Highland cattle rancher, and proud advocate for the Edgewater flume. Elliott’s passion for what he calls “an engineering marvel” is contagious, as he insists on driving me up windy dirt roads to view its most recent renovation. This wooden trestle aqueduct travels 16-km in total, 8-km above-ground and 8-km below, from the generous mountains to the grateful valley. It is entirely gravity-fed and consumes no electricity or fossil fuels. The flume was engineered in 1911, constructed over the next two years, and has been operational since 1914. Vermilion Irrigation District manages the historic and functional water source, including water licenses and allocations to its users. In addition to providing critical irrigation to local food producers, the flume is an important asset prized by the community as a safety net protecting against routine wildfire hazard.
Doug Goodwin, designated flume “Bailiff”, travels by foot, horseback and quad to monitor the remote infrastructure three times per week. Goodwin has also added “drone pilot” to his resume, a very useful tool in grizzly bear terrain, made possible thanks to a ReDi grant from the Columbia Basin Trust.
After 110 years of operation, the aging infrastructure needs some love. Elliott volunteers, using his powers of persuasion for good, by applying for grants to supplement contributions from the Vermilion Irrigation District (VID). They were successful in securing cost-shared funding for two projects funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and delivered by IAF. The funding contributed 50% of the costs for a $18,000 dam repair project and 75% of the $20,000 needed for an engineering survey, both recently completed. Leave it to Elliott to find an engineer on vacation and sweet-talk him into trekking to Edgewater to be a part of preserving history. While it’s too early to share details, Elliott revealed that the engineer’s report uncovered some surprising and exciting information that will greatly improve their maintenance strategy. The VID board is currently drafting an expression of interest for the new Agriculture Water Infrastructure Program (AWP), also funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and delivered by IAF, for the next phase of infrastructure improvements. “We are so grateful to the program funders,” Elliott says on behalf of the District, “their funding allows us to look at the big picture, and help not just individual farmers but the whole community.”
It’s not that often that a community is wholly supportive of, well, anything. In the face of fires, drought and climate change, the Edgewater flume demonstrates how financial assistance towards sustainable, if ancient, technologies can make a massive difference to local producers.
Thanks to Brock Elliott and the Vermilion Irrigation District for sharing this story.
