Leave Comment
Learn More About the Silver Star Golf Course
If you've found the story of the Silver Star Golf Course as fascinating as we have, you can learn a lot more about it by downloading pieces of the original golf course application. These documents will give you an idea how a private corporation goes about removing land from a Class A Provincial Park. If you were living in the Vernon area back in the mid 1990's, you'll find it especially interesting as you may have rubbed shoulders with some of the players.
To download the various sections of the original golf course application, just click on the headings below:
A - Golf Course Application - 1st 18 pages
B - Golf Course Application - Hydrogeological Review
C - Golf Course Application - Channel Assessment Procedure
D - Golf Course Application - Facilities and Timetable
E - Golf Course Application - Ethnographic Assessment
F - Golf Course Application - Audubon International (note: Silver Star Mountain Resort never registered with the Audubon Signature Program)
G - Golf Course Application - Pre and Post Development Drainage
H - Golf Course Application - Waste Water Management
I - Golf Course Application - Pesticide Management Plan
J - Golf Course Application - Spill Response Plan
K - Golf Course Application - Letters and Responses (this section contains letters of concern written by local officials and residents - fascinating!)
Broken Promises
If you download the pages above and read them in detail, you'll likely come to the conclusion, as some coalition members have, that many promises were broken with respect to the golf course.
Of most significance is the fact that eight years after the proposed opening date (June 2000), there still is no golf course; yet the golf course area is slated for disposal of sewage effluent via sprinkler irrigation. 4 fairways (#10, 11, 17 and 18) were logged in the Fall of 2007, and 5 more will be logged in the very near future; this despite the fact that the golf course has not been approved, and the Official Community Plan has not been amended. There has been no public consultation regarding the golf course logging.
If you download section F of the golf course application, you'll see that Silver Star Mountain Resort claimed they would adhere to the strict guidelines of Audubon International's Signature Program . We contacted Audubon International, to see if Silver Star was still registered with their program. The answer we received was quite revealing. Nancy Richardson from Audubon International, who handled Silver Star's original application, stated that "Silver Star is not a member of the Signature Program and never has been". Audubon never received the registration fee, and they didn't even do a site visit! She also mentioned, " I do recall we were contacted during the past couple of years by the resort. The person said he had been instructed to get the Signature Program back on tract. We
Try downloading section H on Wastewater Management. The very first sentence states "To avoid impacting the groundwater supply or aquifer recharge areas, the use of treated effluent is planned for irrigation of the golf course." This sales pitch tries to make effluent irrigation sound like a positive step taken to protect the aquifer, when in fact the effluent has the potential to contaminate groundwater. The golf course area at Silver Star receives twice the annual precipitation of Vernon, and has a considerably cooler climate. It is quite likely that fairways would actually require little, if any irrigation for grass to thrive. Many of the trees in the area are cedars, which is indicative of moist soils, and several wetlands are evident adjacent to the proposed fairways.
Section H is13 pages, and if you look at the 9th page, you'll read this paragraph:
"The future use of the golf course for effluent irrigation will virtually eliminate the need for using the exfiltration basins, thereby addressing the existing concerns about potential groundwater contamination from this practice."
If you scroll to the last page, you'll see a diagram of a proposed new storage lagoon detailed on NovaTec's Site Plan drawing. This lagoon was to be lined to prevent exfiltration, and the practice of exfiltration was to be discontinued, as it contaminates groundwater. The diagram is shown below.
It was proposed that the exfiltration lagoon (labelled "Existing Infiltration Basin") would only be used as a backup to effluent irrigation. The new lined lagoon would provide a minimum of 60 days storage before the effluent was disposed of by snowmaking in the winter or effluent irrigation in the summer.
The reality today is, this lined storage lagoon was never built. Instead of discontinuing the practice of effluent disposal by exfiltration, the resort's sewage utility has excavated the exfiltration lagoon which will result in increased exfiltration and groundwater contamination. Click here to see a video of the lagoon excavation.
