$5 million upgrade to end 2-year water advisory

Tuesday, 22 May 2012 02:00 Kelowna Daily Courier Ron Seymour
Clearer water on a year-round basis should be the payoff to a $5-million upgrade of treatment facilities the District of Lake Country is expected to approve today. Almost 500 people in the town's Oyama district have been on a permanent boil water notice for two years.  Concerns have related to the discoloration of the water that often occurs when sediment gets into the system as crews constantly repair creaky infrastructure. "Once we get this project done by the end of the year, I'm sure it'll be a big relief to everyone in Oyama who's had to boil their water for so long," Lake Country Mayor James Baker said Monday. Council has to hold a special meeting today to authorize increasing the budget for the project by almost $500,000 before the town's 2012 budget is finalized at the end of May. Only one bid for the work was received. The extra expense won't have a direct impact on taxes, since the funds will come from a reserve account. However, the Water Capital Works reserve is to be drained down from $575,000 to less than $30,000. Key components of the upgrade include a new reservoir to hold water from Oyama Lake, located in the hills east of the neighbourhood, as well as a new chlorination facility. Plans also call for the connection of water lines that serve Oyama to systems that draw from Kalamalka and Okanagan lakes. Those sources are generally much clearer throughout the year, and mixing the water should improve its overall clarity by the time it comes out the taps in Oyama. "We should see less tea-coloured water," said Owen Dickie, who represents Oyama on Lake Country town council. For the past several years, Interior Health has been setting significantly higher standards for water quality on municipalities, requiring local authorities to invest in or budget for costly upgrades. Turbidity, or cloudiness, is nothing new in the water that's relied on by hundreds of Oyama residents. Last month, a town official recalled growing up in the area in the 1980s and seeing sand come out of the tap.