Summerland boil water notice hits homes, schools and businesses

It’s not exactly business as usual at Union Kitchen on Main Street in Summerland.

The entire town is under a boil water notice, meaning the tap water is not safe to drink.

“We brought in bottled water and we have a lot of single bottled water in case somebody wants drinking water,” Union Kitchen owner Bradley Clease told Global News.

The boil water notice has been issued because an aging, pressure-reducing valve on a 42-inch water main needs to be replaced.

To do that, the district has to shut off the water chlorination system.

A backup system will still provide water after the regular supply is shut off this weekend.

But the district is still urging residents to cut back their water use.

“If they have regular habits doing laundry or other large uses of water for the weekend to conserve and use as minimal water as possible,” said Summerland CAO Linda Tynan.

The fire chief is assuring residents water trucks will be at the ready in case the water supply is disrupted.

“Normally our fire department is not staffed full-time but during the water operation we will be staffing over that period of time with a four-man initial response crew,” fire chief Glenn Noble said.

Local schools also have an emergency supply of drinking water on hand.

Students at Summerland Secondary School are encouraged to bring their own bottled water from home. Bags currently cover the school’s water fountains.

The Okanagan Skaha School District said all schools in Summerland could be closed on Monday if the fire sprinkler system isn’t working properly, due to water pressure.
This is, however, unlikely to happen, the school district said.

Summerland residents could be boiling their drinking water until mid-March but many are taking the disruption in stride.

“We had a lot of notice and you can take measures before things happen,” Leo Peeman said.

It all means bottles and boiling will be the order of the day for at least two weeks.