East Kamloops residents told to temporarily halt water use again as crews complete ‘critical repairs’

“We will backfill before we flow water and it’s to do with pressure,” Luison said. “There is a lot of pressure and load on a pipe when you turn water on, and it should be buried so it is held in place.”

Luison also confirmed that regardless of the work that’s done, the city will send out an alert to residents with next steps around 6:00 p.m. this evening. Updates will be posted here as well.

When water is able to flow again, Luison said, people in Valleyview, Dallas and Campbell Creek will return to a boil water advisory while those in Juniper Ridge, Rose Hill and Barnhartvale will remain under a ‘do not consume’ order.

“It’s based on pressure levels that we’re able to maintain and what the surroundings of the community are,” Luison said, when asked about the reason for the two different advisories. “If they have industrial or agricultural uses, there might be possibility of different contaminants than just microorganisms.”

“That is why there are six different areas because we have different pressure zones.”

ORIGINAL — Just as residents in East Kamloops neighbourhoods impacted by this week’s water main break were able to turn on their taps for essential water use, they’re being told to temporarily halt said water use for most of the day Thursday (May 14).

The City of Kamloops says crews are carrying out critical repairs on the southeast sector water main along River Street, near the Kamloops Centre for Water Quality.

Early this morning, the city issued an alert asking residents and businesses in Juniper Ridge, Valleyview, Rose Hill, Dallas, Barnhartvale and Campbell Creek to temporarily stop all water use between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Thursday.

Joe Luison, the city’s assistant civic operations director, said doing so will ensure that water flows again once repairs are complete.

“Two hours in, crews are almost at the pipe, they’re just above it,” Luison said just after 10:00 a.m. Thursday morning. “We’re approximately at the 14-foot level, bottom of the pipe’s approximately 15 feet – so that’s good news.”

“We’ll be removing a larger section of the concrete pipe and replacing it with the PVC, then turning the water on. From there, if we’re successful after we backfill we will start through the process. We have another team working on what does the flushing process look like.”

Reservoir Levels are Holding

Luison said the city was able to fill its 15 reservoirs in east Kamloops to a level that allowed today’s repairs to go ahead. Reservoir levels “are holding well,” he added, noting information appears to be making its way to impacted residents and business owners.

“We’re quite successful in maintaining those levels. So at this point, we feel like we definitely have a big enough window to do the repairs,” Luison said.

Crews anticipate they’ll need about an eight-hour window to complete these “more robust” repairs, after earlier repair efforts were unsuccessful Tuesday, forcing the city to shift to Plan B.

“We had hoped to start the excavation yesterday, we just weren’t comfortable [with the reservoir levels],” Luison said when asked about the timing of the work. “We monitored reservoir levels overnight as we wanted to gather a little bit more information to see how much use was actually occurring.”

“This morning, through discussions with the team, we decided we’re going to go.”

Potable Water Available; Schools Open

Potable water will be available at Valleyview Arena, the BC Wildlife Park, Dallas Park and the Dallas fire station until 11:59 p.m. Friday (May 15). Starting Saturday (May 16), for a minimum of five days, this water will be available at Valleyview Arena and the Dallas fire station between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.

People are limited to 100 litres per visit and they’re required to bring their own containers, the city added.

“I can’t forecast which areas will come online first,” Luison said. “Right now the fix is hours, the transitioning to potable water is days.”

All schools – Dallas, Juniper Ridge, Marion Schilling, Ralph Bell and RL Clemitson elementary schools as well as Valleyview Secondary – in the affected neighbourhoods are open today as they all will have access to water.

“They are using it as an essential water service,” Luison said. “It’s important that kids are in school so we prioritized daycares and schools to have water and the team has worked that into their calculations.”

In a statement, School District 73 said will be provide drinking water stations at all affected schools for as long as needed.

– With files from Aaron Schulze/CFJC Today

by Victor Kaisar

East Kamloops residents told to temporarily halt water use again as crews complete ‘critical repairs’

Reservoir Levels are Holding

Potable Water Available; Schools Open

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