Some Okanagan Falls residents will be dry on Thursday

OKANAGAN FALLS – A few Okanagan Falls residents will find themselves without running water for a period of time Thursday.

On Thursday, May 28, residents and businesses south of Unit Electric in Okanagan Falls will be without water after 8 a.m. The shutoff will affect users on Maple Street south of Unit Electric and will also include Wallis Road, Leslie Drive, Oliver Ranch Road and Valleyview Estates.

Okanagan Falls Irrigation District Board Chair Bob Daly says the district has planned for an outage from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but expects contractors could be finished before then. He says the shutoff affects the community’s upper water zone, which consists of fewer residences.

Contractors working on the community’s new well are in the process of tying the well into the water main. The well is a new one designed to work separately or in conjunction with the community’s other existing wells. A power plant was also installed in the well building which will enable the district to continue pumping water to the upper reservoir should a major power shortage or disaster occur.

Notices were distributed, by hand, to all addresses affected on either May 24 or 25.

The Okanagan Falls Irrigation District recognizes the inconvenience caused by the water shut off but says it is necessary in order to complete work.

Further information is available at the district’s website.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.