The water line leak on 39 Street has been repaired and water service has been restored to the affected residences.

Separately, a transformer has been replaced in the lakeside pump house to resolve communication issues between the reservoir water level detector and the lakeside pumps. This lack of communication between different equipment meant that periodically the water level in the reservoir fell below the required minimum level. It is expected that this repair will resolve issues of dirty water and reduced pressure that some properties were experiencing as the water level in the reservoir fell too low.

There is a water line break on 39 Street. As a result, households along 39 Street as well as some of those on 37 Street will be temporarily without water. Repairs are currently underway, but the length of the disruption is unknown.

With the arrival of hot weather, the need for watering gardens, trees and lawns has increased, but please be aware of the times when irrigation systems (including lawn sprinklers) for residential properties can be used – which is between 8PM and 8AM (i.e., overnight) for the period from June 1 to September 14. Please limit your watering to this period, which will avoid the water simply evaporating, and will reduce peak throughput, and hence wear and tear, on our pumps and other components of our water system (which increases both the risk of breakdowns/outages and the cost, which all of us share).

(These time-of-day restrictions do not apply to orchards, vineyards, and pasture, as the OID cannot supply enough water for all areas of all those properties in any limited period).

Note that these time-of-use restrictions do not apply to hand-held hoses, which can be used at any time.

There will be a water outage on Wednesday May 27 from 10 AM until no later than 2 PM (and possibly earlier) to allow a diver to clean the intake screens for the lake pumps. During this time the pumps have to be turned off, so water pressure will drop and outages may occur.

The chlorine apparatus at the main pumphouse is undergoing routine maintenance today and it turns out that some aspects of this maintenance cannot be undertaken without shutting down the pumps. (We apologize for the short notice, but we were unaware of this requirement until now). Consequently, water supply disruptions may occur off and on during the day. This may result in low water pressure when the pumps are turned off, and until the pumps can catch up with refilling the reservoir when they are turned back on again. In the worst case scenario, if water demand is very high during periods when the pumps are off, this may result in a lack of water supply, although hopefully only for short periods. The maintenance is expected to be fully completed today.

Invoices for water taxes and tolls were mailed today, Tuesday April 28, 2020. Payment is due by May 29, 2020. After that time, interest charges will be added to any amounts outstanding.

Recently, in order to resolve certain issues that have been brought to the Board’s attention in the last year, and to deal with some concerns about treatment of properties that were added to the OID in 2011 and 2012, the Board has revised the OID assessment bylaw, which was last changed in 1984.  For most properties, the changes to the assessment bylaw, which mainly concern land exceeding 2 acres in size where there is a pre-existing, operational alternative source of water that is used for agricultural irrigation, or for domestic supply, but not both, will have no discernible effect on land classification or invoicing.  For those few properties that are affected, the new bylaw recognizes that those properties do not require OID water for both these purposes, and should be charged accordingly.

Due to the change to our assessment bylaw it is necessary for us to mail assessment notices to all property owners in the OID.  These should be sent out early next week (ideally by March 30).  Any objections to these assessments need to be sent to us either by email, by April 15, or by regular mail, postmarked by April 15.  A Court of Revision will be held after this date to resolve any such objections.

In view of the timelines associated with this assessment process, mailing of invoices will be delayed until late in April.  Because of this delay, the due date for receiving payment for invoices has been extended for this year to FRIDAY MAY 29. After this time, late interest charges will be added to all outstanding amounts owing.

Please note that water rates (tolls and/or taxes) for 2020 are unchanged from 2019 (which in turn were unchanged from 2018).

On Saturday April 11, 2020 (Easter Saturday), we will change over from well water (periodically supplemented with lake water when demand exceeds the well’s capacity) to lake water for the irrigation season.  Irrigation systems should NOT be turned on before this time.  Where residential watering of plants, shrubs, etc., is required before this date, it should be done with a hand-held hose.
The water changeover is not expected to be accompanied by any loss of water pressure or water supply.

Although we are normally required to hold our Annual General Meeting (AGM) by April 30, we have been advised by the Provincial Government that, based on the ban concerning gatherings imposed by the BC Health Officer, our AGM should be postponed until after such bans have been lifted. We will advise when the AGM is rescheduled.

Fortis has just advised that they should have power restored to our lake pump house by 4 PM today, Thursday March 12. Once that happens, the lake pumps will help replenish the reservoir and water pressure (and supply) should return to normal soon thereafter.