Thursday, May 23, 2013

Kal Lake Water Turned Off

Written by Peter McIntyre Thursday, 23 May 2013 15:04 
  Duteau Creek Treatment PlantAll 50,000 water customers in Greater Vernon are using the Duteau Creek source, as of today. Renee Clark from Greater Vernon Water says they had to shut-off the Kalamalka Lake source today due to increased turbidity caused by spring run-off and heavy rainfall. "The turbidity at Kalamalka Lake went above 3.5 NTU which is our limit, plus our UV disinfection was being affected," she tells Kiss FM. Clark, RDNO's water quality manager, says the Duteau supply also has increased turbidity, but operators are able to keep it at acceptable levels below 1 NTU. She says the 35,000 Kal Lake customers, mostly in the city of Vernon and parts of Coldstream, will likely notice the Duteau water is much softer. Clark says changing the water sources is not a matter of just flipping a switch. "We're getting to that point hopefully in the next couple of years where we'll be able to do it automatically, but at this time we still have to do a few manual turns, so it's a collaborative effort between the operators in the city and the plant operators." Clark says being able to switch sources avoids having to put customers on a boil water notice.

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