Good drinking water may finally be on the horizon for Sunnybrae residents.
Columbia Shuswap Regional District Utilities team leader Terry Langlois got the go-ahead from the board to apply for a General Strategic Priorities Fund grant in the amount of $1.7 million for the Sunnybrae Water System upgrade project.
In 2009, Sunnybrae residents asked the regional district to acquire the private water system.
A community meeting was held in 2012 to review an initial engineering assessment and discuss available options for water users.
“There was unanimous support for the CSRD to secure grant funding, move forward with public assent and take ownership of the water system,” wrote Langlois in his report to the board.
The owner of the system that serves some 70 Sunnybrae properties walked away from the system in 2009, leaving an ad hoc community group to cope with the failing system – and a boil-water advisory for most of the past five years.
Langlois said that after many delays, the defective system and all of its assets were taken over by the province in May 2014.
The regional district has completed the engineering assessment of the system and has been waiting for a grant opportunity to be announced.
A resolution of the board endorsing the application to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities is required as part of the grant application program.
The general strategic priorities fund provides 100 per cent of first-phase funding and applications must be received by April 15.
Langlois cautioned that competition for the funding will be fierce, but the fact the system has been transferred could help.
“I’d like to thank the ad hoc committee that somehow kept the system running out of their own pockets,” he said.
Area C South Shuswap director Paul Demenok offered his support for the grant application and thanked Langlois for getting the project “shovel ready” in order to be immediately able to take advantage of funding announcements.
