Residents of road in Carr’s Landing vote to join municipal water system

The owners of a small water utility in Lake Country are eager to pull the plug on their operation and join the town’s distribution system.

Ten of the 17 property owners along Moberly Road in Carr’s Landing have voted in favour of connecting to the municipal system, with construction tiein and other related costs estimated to be $645,000.

“The Moberly system’s getting pretty old, the residents who run it are getting up there in age as well, and there’s not many younger people interested in taking over the operation,” Lake Country engineering chief Michael Mercer said Thursday.

All upgrading expenses will be borne by the Moberly Road property owners, with no direct financial impact to the town’s water system. Perproperty costs are considerable, approaching $40,000 over 15 years.

“It’s a lot, but there’s no free ride for latecomers joining our water system,” Lake Country Mayor James Baker said Thursday.

Moberly Road is one of the last areas in Lake Country where residents had been getting their water from a private utility that draws from Okanagan Lake. Although it’s a small system, the water must be chlorinated, and its operations are overseen by Interior Health.

Still, with a private water utility, there can be ongoing operational challenges, Baker said.

“The systems can be a pain to look after because they’re always breaking down and there might not be enough money in the utility’s capital reserve,” said Baker, whose own property was once served by a private water utility that has since been folded into the town’s system.

Baker says there are about 160 private water systems remaining in B.C., including a handful of other ones still operating in Lake Country.