*UPDATE May 30 2019. 10:00 am*
Stage 4 water restrictions have been lifted for the Town of Creston.
However, the boil water notice is still in effect for the Erickson Water System from 3013 Beam Road to the west, and for 27th Avenue north, north of Highway 3.
As of June 1st stage 1 water restrictions will be in effect to conserve water for the summer months.
Watering of lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs may be done between 7 pm – 10 am.
*UPDATE May 28 2019. 4:40 pm*
The repair on the transmission main between the RDCK’s new reservoirs and the Town of Creston’s reservoirs will determine when water restrictions in Creston and the boil water notice in Erickson will be lifted. The expected repair time is tomorrow (May 29). However according to Utility Operations Manager for the RDCK Steve Ethier, the boil water notice will not be lifted so soon.
“So once we make the repair, re-pressurize, everything’s chlorinated and super-chlorinated. Then we flush the section of line with clean water out of a hydrant or flush point. We take bacteriological samples, and once they come back negative, which they almost always do, then that’s when we would lift the boil water notice, in consultation with Interior Health.”
Ethier estimates the whole process, including the tests and final decision to lift the boil water notice may be done by the weekend, or potentially next Tuesday.
*UPDATE May 28 2019. 3:00 pm*
Creston’s broken water main has been repaired but Stage 4 Water restrictions are still in effect.
This is due to the low Shikurski reservoir levels that would not be able to handle a sudden increase of water consumption from the Town according to Manager of Engineering Colin Farynowski.
“We just can’t go too fast because we don’t have the volume that we would out of Arrow Creek. But we are filling the reservoirs so, really, overnight when demand is down we should be able to top them up.”
Farynowski goes on to explain the pace of flow.
“Right now we are moving about 80 litres a second of water and under peak hour, we are 110 litres a second. So if people ramp-up and treat us like a 35 C days and water their grass, we can’t keep up.”
***
The Town of Creston has declared stage 4 water restrictions.
According to the Director of Municipal services Ross Beddoes, problems began yesterday when the Arrow Creek water supply in Erickson suffered a water main failure.
“We were down to providing water from our pumps which are located down on the west side of Highway 21. Everything was going well, we were filling the reservoirs, we were filling the upper-reservoirs from our Shikurski pump house. This morning at about 6:30 am we suffered a water line break on our main supply line from our pump.”
Town Crews are repairing the main line on the less trafficked Canyon Street near Highway 21, blocking road access. Beddoes estimates that the line may be pressured up in roughly 2 hours, refilling Creston’s reservoirs.
For now, stage 4 water restrictions prohibit all non-essential use of water including watering of lawns, filling of pools and other exterior water use.
As for Erickson, the RDCK’s boil water notice is still in effect.
Water intended for drinking, washing fruits and vegetables, making ice, or brushing teeth should be boiled for one minute. Erickson residents are asked to conserve water as well.
For updates on the Erickson restrictions and the boil water notice, visit theRDCK website.
For the Town of Creston’s water restriction guidelines visitCreston.ca