A mobile home park in Lake Country is without a functioning water well, leaving residents without water for more than a week as temperatures reached the high 30s.
At Creek Run mobile home, located north of Commonage Road on Okanagan Indian Band land, residents say they experienced weeks of irregular water pressure before water went down completely mid-last week.
“It’s frustrating when you’re working full-time and you can’t get up and have a normal shower,” said Diana Evens, who has lived in the park for four years.
One resident who wishes to remain anonymous says she works at Kelowna General Hospital. She’s required to shower before work during the COVID-19 pandemic, but hasn’t been able to do so at her home.
“We did not get notice from the owners until Sunday (July 26) when they came around door-to-door,” she said.
READ MORE: Hazy Okanagan skies caused by U.S. wildfires: Environment Canada
“Normally when you lose your water there should be a water truck that comes,” Sheryl Redahl, a Creek Run resident of five years, said on Thursday. “Right now there’s nothing.”
That changed the following day when a non-potable water truck arrived at the park, along with a message to residents.
Around noon on Friday, July 31, a letter was emailed to residents on behalf of the park’s owners, who took ownership of the park just this month following a lengthy court dispute. The letter was posted at the park’s front entrance.
The letter explains that as of Friday the water is still off, and technician crews have been on site since July 23 dealing with a well that might not be salvageable.
“The issue as we understand it today is that the pump for the main water well has burned out because of an issue with the water supply within the well,” the letter reads.
“The well has either collapsed or clogged, we are expecting a tech to drop a camera into the well to determine if it is repairable. If it cannot be repaired, we will need to dig a new well.”
The letter states that crews are attempting to hook up a water truck directly to the system and bypass the well.
“The challenge is that we do not have any reliable blueprints to know the capacity of the water system. This is important for accurately pressurizing the system.”
While the well remains out of order, the owners are attempting to restore non-potable water to the main water system, which can be used to shower but not to drink.
“We are also looking at accessing an alternative well on the property which requires health permits. For today we are bringing in a water truck that has non-potable water available for all tenants use that will be parked by the mailboxes,” the letter continues.
“We appreciate this is frustrating and is unfortunately caused by years of neglect,” the letter concludes. “While the owners are committed to seeing this issue resolved as quickly as possible, please be advised they have experienced a sudden death in their family.”
READ MORE: FortisBC sees record-high summer electricity usage in Okanagan and Kootenays
