By David F. Rooney
Big Eddy water users are not the only people who want the City to provide them with clean water; Thomas Brook water users living just below RMR want to be taken into the fold, too.
Interior Health has put the area, which is within the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, on a Boil Water Advisory and has told the affected residents that they have five years to rectify the situation.
“Connecting to city water may be the most viable option,” resident Ken Gibson wrote in a memo he produced after a meeting with City and CSRD officials on September 17.
“This may likely mean annexation to join the city. There are a number of Thomas Brook users keen to persue this.”
That may well happen. CSRD Area B Director Loni Parker has recommended that the Thomas Brook users wait until after the November 15 election.
Revelstoke Mountain Resort representative Lindsey MacIntyre said the water from the book has never been potable and RMR has no obligation to provide potable water. The resort supports the annexation option. Please click here to read the Thomas Brook documents.
As if this is not enough, the City is also in discussions with the trustees of the Big Eddy Waterworks (BEW) in the wake of their August 15 request that the City take over their operations. The BEW is unable to address the low water pressure and sometimes questionable water quality that is affecting its service. The BEW’s deficiencies are also the stalling commercial developments in the neighbourhood.
In the wake of the BEW’s request, Mike Thomas, director of Engineering and Development Services, has produced a policy and a set of procedures to facilitate doing just that.
“The proposed Water and Sewer Acquisition Policy and Procedure would provide a base guide for how the City would analyze, review and consider future utility acquisitions,” he said in a memo presented to Mayor David Raven and City Council at last Tuesday’s Council meeting, October 14. “By establishing measurables and mapping the process, a framework for proceeding with future utility acquisitions is created.”
Please click here to read the new policy.
You can also watch Council discuss this issue by activating the YouTube player below:
