By Steve Hubrecht
Ongoing sewer and water upgrades resulted in Invermere issuing a boil water advisory last week.
On Tuesday, October 25, a valve burst on the district water main on 13th Avenue — which has been the site of infrastructure work since the summer.
The potential for contamination was small, but the district did not take any chances and issued the boil water advisory immediately. Testing confirmed the water was fine and the advisory was lifted on Friday, Oct. 28.
The water main break was not the result of a mistake, but rather came because the only thing holding the valve on the ancient pipes in place, was the weight of the earth above. Contractors had been working on the second phase of water and sewer upgrades since early July. They literally had just one more residential hookup to complete on Tuesday, Oct. 25, before they could declare the 13th Avenue part of the project done and then turn their attention to 15th Street. But as they removed the soil to do that final hookup, the sudden lack of ground pressure on the faulty valve caused it to explode.
“It flew apart. A lot of water gushed out very quickly before our team got the system shut down. We pulled our director of public works out of a meeting, and she put together a play that helped solve things swiftly. We are very grateful to her for that,” Invermere mayor, Al Miller, told the Pioneer. “I do feel that this demonstrates exactly why we are doing these infrastructures upgrades. Our water and sewer infrastructure is just not in good shape on 13th Avenue. We desperately need the upgrades.”
On the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 25, municipal employees went door to door throughout Invermere, handing out notices about the boil water advisory. It applied to all neighbourhoods of Invermere except for the Pineridge, Westridge and Castlerock subdivisions. The advisory said not to drink the water.
Miller explained that the district didn’t think there was any issue with the water quality, but wanted to have an advisory in place until the water could be tested, just to be sure.
The district put the advisory up on its website, on its Facebook page, and used several electronic billboards around town to notify residents of the advisory.
Still, the Pioneer heard from multiple residents upset (some very much so) that the district had not done more to notify them of the advisory.
June Minaker did not see a municipal employee come to her door, did not receive a notice and did not see any of the electronic billboards. “I casually bumped into a neighbour. If I had not, I would not know. Perhaps I could have become very ill,” outlined Minaker. She questioned why the district did not make phone calls to let its citizens know of the advisory.
“I phoned the district to ask how would I know when this advisory is lifted, and I was told that this would be placed on Facebook. What about people who do not use Facebook? Or those who do not go to the district’s Facebook site?” asked Minaker. “This again is unacceptable and does not take responsibility towards its citizens.”
She added that she found much of the information on the district’s website not specifically clear, and felt that it did not fully outline the potential seriousness of the situation. This, she contrasted with what the City of Kelowna did on its website, noting Kelowna provided much more detailed information.
Minaker was also vexed by the lack of details surrounding the water quality testing, noting that “Invermere…does not outline how this testing occurs and by whom.”
