EDMONTON – Half Moon Lake resort, a long time Alberta campground southeast of Sherwood Park, is now open to the public after being shut down a year ago so that improvements could be made to the water and sewer system.
That forced last year’s stay at the campground to suddenly be cut short for snowbirds like Pat and Rainey Dufresne.
“Nobody got sick so I don’t know what the problem was,” says long-term lease holder, Pat Dufresne. He claims campers were kicked out of the site by the RCMP on the Canada Day long weekend.
“We couldn’t get a spot to camp because everything was booked so we stayed at Walmart in Sherwood Park.”
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Owner and visitors to Half Moon Lake resort have always maintained the water was safe, however, officials disagreed and claimed sewage wasn’t being disposed of properly. Alberta Health Services received a court order to close the resort.
“Argument has always been that we have good water,” says the resort owner, Jack Purdy. “These wells were licensed some 42 years ago.”
In order to re-open, the resort needed to meet new standards, though.
Unable to reach an agreement with the county to share water and sewer, staff worked with Alberta Environment for approval to build a chlorination system on site.
After working with regulators to make changes, the resort is now ready for the long weekend crowd, with a new unique waste treatment system close to completion. The owner says it’s the first wetland waste water treatment system in the province.
He hopes past water worries won’t keep Albertans away this long weekend.
“We thank all of our people for being so patient, we’ve been a brand here for 50 years and we welcome everybody back,” says Purdy.
With files from Julie Matthews, Global News
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