Water invoices (tolls and taxes) for 2021 have been put in the mail. Payment is due by April 30, 2021. Any amount outstanding after that date will attract a penalty. Payment can be made by e-transfer, cheque, or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). If you would like an electronic version, send us an email.

Once the irrigation period ends and water demand is lowered, the water source for the OID will be changed from lake water to well water. It is currently anticipated that this changeover will occur on Saturday November 7, 2020. Associated with the changeover, the reservoir has to be emptied and cleaned. As a result, there will be a water supply disruption (affecting both water availability and water pressure) on Saturday November 7, which is expected to last from 8 AM to 2 PM.

Note that the boil water notice will continue to be in effect even after the changeover to well water is completed since periodically water demand in winter exceeds the amount that can be pumped from the well, in which case lake water is automatically added to the well water in the system to maintain sufficient quantity and water pressure.

The annual irrigation season will end on October 31, 2020. If you require assistance with shutting off your irrigation, please contact the water bailiff. Water should not be used for irrigation after this date until the new irrigation season begins in mid April, 2021.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Osoyoos Irrigation District (OID) had to be postponed from when it is usually held in April, due to restrictions imposed by the BC Public Health Officer (PHO) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has now been rescheduled to:

Tuesday October 27, starting at 7 PM, at the Legion Hall in Osoyoos. 

The main items on the Agenda of the AGM include:
1. Approval of the Agenda. 2. Approval and Adoption of the minutes of the 2019 AGM.** 3. Introduction of the current OID Board members. 4. Discussion and Approval of the 2019 Financial Statements and Auditor’s Report.** 5. Reports from the Chair and from the Bailiff. 6. Matters arising from 2019 minutes. 7. Other Business. 8. Elections for two Board members for 3-year terms.

**Copies of the minutes of the 2019 AGM and the 2019 financial statements will be provided at the AGM.

COVID-19 requirements for the AGM as imposed by Provincial Health Officer :

(i) Participation is limited to a maximum of 50 people. If more than 50 attend, the meeting will be held in parts with each part limited to 50 people. 
(ii) At the AGM all participants must provide their first and last name and a contact phone number or email address to allow contact tracing by the Provincial Health Officer should that become necessary. 
(iii) Two metre physical distancing between individuals is required – chairs will be spaced accordingly, although they can be moved closer together for people in the same “bubble”.  The wearing of face masks is encouraged.  Hand sanitizer will be available. 
(iv) It is a requirement that you do NOT attend if you are sick, have had symptoms of COVID-19 in the 10 days prior to the AGM, are under the direction of the PHO to self-isolate, or have arrived from outside Canada in the last 14 days.

If you have any questions about the rescheduled AGM, please email us. We look forward to seeing you at the AGM on October 27.

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.