Town coping well with water outage
The vast majority of Summerland residents are tolerant of this weekend’s interruption of the municipal water-supply system.
“Lots of people have dropped by this morning asking for information or help,” Chief Administrative Officer Linda Tynan said on Saturday morning at the aquatics centre.
“Almost everyone has a positive attitude about the situation.”
The aquatics centre is being used as a communications centre as thousands of residential and business customers are without water this weekend. As the interruption was announced well in advance, many made arrangements to travel out-of-town this weekend.
According to Tynan, the project is progressing as planned.
District crews and contractors worked overnight Friday and by Saturday morning, most properties were receiving their water from alternate supplies. A boil water advisory remains in place.
The shutdown is required to complete a $300,000 repair job.
A faulty pressure-reducing valve located in a concrete vault underneath the roundabout at Prairie Valley and Victoria roads needs to be replaced, but it’s not a simple fix.
On one side of the vault is a single 100-centimetre pipe from the water treatment plant. It splits there into three 30-cm pipes, each with a pressure-reducing valve on it. The three pipes then re-combine and emerge from the other side of the vault as a single 100-cm pipe that supplies water mains downstream.
Safety regulations prohibit crews from completing the work while the main line is charged, meaning all 3.4 kilometres of the pipe between the treatment plant and vault must be drained first.
In addition to the communications centre, the district organized a volunteer group called Water Angels to provide assistance for those in need. Among the volunteers are scouts and members of the Summerland Steam junior hockey team. Nester’s Market donated 300 cases of water for residents.
Municipal staff is scheduled to post an update today at 9 a.m.. To read the latest updates visit: www.pentictonherald.ca.
For additional information, call 250-4863765 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today.