The Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA) was born from the the successful legacy of community environmental pioneers and activists, who 30 years ago, held Brenda Mines accountable and forced them to back track on an bad idea to dump raw effluent into Trepanier Creek.
Those early water defenders were instrumental in forcing the mine to construct a water treatment plant in order to protect the water and the salmon who call it home. To this day it is only one of three mine water treatment plants in all of BC.
With the knowledge learned from this campaign, Peachland residents organized again in 2017 after a unmaintained logging road slid into Peachland Creek, destroying riparian and fish habitat and dumping tonnes of gravel, sand, spilled fuel, and effluent into the town’s drinking water.
With many other threats to the water source coming to light in this investigation, PWPA created the Ten Point Plan, and has been systematically advocating, lobbying, informing and building community and developing allies across the Okanagan. We are not alone in the battle to save our water.