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Taxpayers on are the hook to pull out 31 dead cattle from Okanagan Lake despite the fact no one seems to know why they need to be removed.

The closest community drinking water supply is more than 10 kilometres away from where the cattle drowned after they wandered onto thin ice from their Okanagan Indian Band ranch over Christmas.

The Interior Health Authority told iNFOnews.ca in an email that the risk to public health was low as the closest Interior Health permitted community drinking water supply was more than 10 km away.

"The operator has increased monitoring to confirm that the water quality at their intake has not significantly changed," Interior Health said.

The Regional District of North Okanagan isn't worried about drinking water quality either.

"The only locations that the Regional District regularly samples and tests water quality on Okanagan Lake are at two of our water utilities, Delcliffe and Outback. Both the Delcliffe and Outback water utilities are located over 15 kilometres away from this incident, so we are not presently concerned about this incident impacting water quality for our customers," the Regional District said in a statement. "We will continue our sampling and water treatment procedures at these water utilities as normal."

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The Ministry of Environment has confirmed it's working with the Okanagan Indian Band to retrieve the carcasses but wouldn't say how long it would take before the decomposing cows started to affect the water quality.

Interior Health also wasn't prepared to discuss how detrimental the carcasses were to the lake overall, telling iNFOnews.ca they could only answer questions about the water quality in their drinking systems.

Plenty of animals, fish and birds live and die on and in Okanagan Lake as part of the ecosystem and finding out why the cattle needed pulling from the water is no easy feat.

Several Okanagan environmental consultants weren't prepared to answer when asked what effect the dead cows would have on the lake.

Larratt Aquatic Consulting appeared willing to discuss the topic but said as they are involved in the case, they couldn't speak publicly.

What is known is that the taxpayer is on the hook for the operation.

The Ministry of Environment said it was working with the Okanagan Indian Band to secure cash from Indigenous Services Canada to pay for the retrieval. The Ministry said the salvage operation began yesterday, Jan. 5. 

READ MORE: Retrieving dead cattle from Okanagan Lake 'extremely dangerous': diver

The Ministry didn't give a price on how much it would cost but Okanagan professional diver Kevin Aschhoff previously told iNFOnews.ca a team of five divers would cost $5,000 a day and that price could double depending on what equipment was used. Aschhoff also said retrieving the cattle would be extremely complex and diving under the ice to retrieve them would be very dangerous.

In a statement, the Ministry said its "top priority" is to ensure the water quality of the lake is not affected although it's distancing itself from those living on the reserve who may have questions about their water.

"Water purveyors in the North Arm (of Okanagan Lake), if located on Band lands, should contact the First Nations Health Authority for information about water quality assurance," the statement read.

According to Global Okanagan, 31 cattle fell through the ice at a cost to the rancher of $100,000. 

What's also unclear is whether the cattle were fenced off or not, or why they had to resort to looking for water on the lake and whether they had any fresh drinking water on land.

Whether the cattle's owner will be responsible for any of the costs isn't known.

The Okanagan Indian Band did not respond to iNFOnew.ca's request for comment.

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