On September 18, 2026, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen issued a request for proposals for Phase 3 of the Olalla Groundwater Protection Plan. Olalla, the RDOS says, “relies on a single community groundwater well as its sole source of potable water.” Phase 1 (2004) characterized the aquifer and drew preliminary capture zones for the well; Phase 2 (2006) made a preliminary inventory of contaminant sources and “identified domestic septic systems within the 60-day capture zone as the highest groundwater protection risk,” recommending a detailed contaminant inventory, a flood risk assessment, a groundwater protection area designation, contingency planning, and protection measures.
The consultant is to complete Phase 3 and “advance the Olalla Groundwater Protection Plan toward implementation.” Proposals close at 2:00 pm on October 23, 2026, on the RDOS Bonfire portal.
On September 29 the RDOS issued a second call, for a wellhead protection plan for the Willowbrook Water System, which its system page places in Electoral Area C between Oliver and Okanagan Falls, serving about 80 connections from one groundwater well. The plan must include a hydrogeological assessment, delineation of the wellhead protection area, a contaminant source inventory, a risk assessment, engagement with interested parties and the public, mitigation measures, and an implementation strategy. Proposals close at 2:00 pm on October 30. Neither advertisement names a budget nor a contact; the documents and any addenda are on the portal for registered vendors, as RFP-RDOS-26-Water Services-110 and -111.
Olalla’s well, drilled in March 1998 to 155 feet, draws from aquifer 935, the Keremeos Creek Valley aquifer, which the Province maps as confined sand and gravel, 5.2 square kilometres, high productivity, and moderate vulnerability. The RDOS’s fact sheet of September 11, 2025, counts 226 connections and records the first total coliform counts in July 2024 (no E. coli or fecal coliforms to date), a boil water notice in spring 2025, and an investigation of the well, the reservoir, and the backup source, which the fact sheet names but neither it nor the call describes, that found no contamination sources. The system page dates the notice from April 24, 2025, and its downgrade to a water quality advisory to November 6, 2025; on April 9, 2026, the RDOS said the advisory and temporary chlorination remain in place as a precaution.
Where it stands
- 2004: Olalla Phase 1: aquifer characterization and preliminary capture zones for the well
- 2006: Olalla Phase 2: preliminary contaminant inventory; septic systems in the 60-day capture zone rated the highest risk
- September 18, 2026 (key): Olalla Phase 3 request for proposals issued
- September 29, 2026: Willowbrook wellhead protection plan request for proposals issued
- October 23, 2026 (next): Olalla proposals close at 2:00 pm
- October 30, 2026 (next): Willowbrook proposals close at 2:00 pm
Who it affects: Olalla’s 226 connections and Willowbrook’s roughly 80; owners of property near either well, whose septic systems and land uses are what a contaminant inventory records; farms and businesses inside a protection area, once one is designated; and hydrogeologists and engineering firms, with proposals due October 23 and October 30.
What hasn’t changed: Neither call describes an existing protection area; at Olalla, designation is what Phase 2 recommended, and no new rule is in force. The calls hire a consultant to write a plan; any designation, bylaw, or measure that follows is a separate, later decision. A household well still needs no BC groundwater licence.
Source: Advertisement: Request for Proposal, Olalla Water System Groundwater Protection Plan Phase 3, Advertisement: Request for Proposal, Willowbrook Water System Wellhead Protection Plan, Willowbrook Water System, Olalla Water System, Fact Sheet: Olalla Water System, Olalla Water System Update, April 9, 2026, and GWELLS Aquifer 935 · checked October 14, 2026
Updates: None yet.
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