-But it still has to be boiled-
OSOYOOS TIMES-December 24, 2008-
By Karen KnelsenrnOsoyoos Times
The effects of last week's water main breakage are still being felt as all residents of Osoyoos are still asked to boil their water for at least a full minute before drinking it or using it for cleaning vegetables and fruit.
A computer malfunction caused a series of disasters at one of the Town's main water lines located at the north end of 74th Avenue in the early morning hours of Dec. 15 and water was cut off to about 200 homes and businesses in an area between the Osoyoos Golf and Country Club and the Buena Vista Industrial Park.
Water was restored to those homes on Dec. 18.
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells was happy to hear water services had been restored.
But, he said, it will be a while before the full effects of what happened will be felt.
It was a disaster and we haven't begun to look at the cost yet, he said.
He said they still don't know exactly what caused the communication breakdown between a computer and the pump “ a two-fold problem that kept water pumping into a reservoir after it was full while a built-in alarm failed to sound when water began to overflow.
The overflowing water eroded soil around the main, causing it to rupture.
Wells said there is speculation that some power interruptions may have caused the problem.
There was definitely a power bump on the Sunday (Dec. 14) night, he said. There were a lot of alarms going off, but this wasn't one of them.rnThe Town did not have an idea when the boil-water notice would be lifted.
Residents of areas affected by the water outage were left to their own devices when it came to everyday tasks that require water.
Derek and Maureen Poucher, who live in the Desert Rose subdivision, are two people who were affected by the water outage.
They gathered snow and shovelled it into their bathtub.
As it melted they used it to flush their toilets.
They also boiled it, to make sure it was safe to use in the kitchen.
We're pretty resourceful, Derek said.
But until their water was turned back on three and a half days after it was turned off, they were forced to endure another type of challenge “ the end of which Derek said they celebrated with joy.
We had a wonderful shower this morning, he said on Dec. 19. We can now stand to talk to each other in the same room.
Derek can joke about it because, despite it being the couple's first Christmas in Osoyoos, he didn't let it ruin his week.
You do what you have to do, he said.
He is, however, grateful to the crews who did what they had to do in subzero temperatures all week.
They've done a very good job.
When Cor Vermeulen, manager at the Osoyoos Buy-Low Foods supermarket, was told that water to 200 homes had been shut off and the rest of the town was going to have to boil their water, he made a few quick phone calls.
We've had lots of extra water brought in, he said. It's going fast.
We scrambled for a while. It took us a day.
Over at Super Valu, owner Ken Naylor said their filtered water dispenser more than covered the demand, although they did bring in some extra 12 and 24 packs of bottled water.
And after students at Osoyoos Secondary School got the message that school was staying in session, things got back to normal pretty quick there too, said School District 53 Superintendent Juleen McElgunn.
We did have low attendance rates for part of Monday and Tuesday, but then things came up to normal again, she said. It was fine. There were no issues, it went very well actually.
The school was in one of the parts of town without any water at all and maintenance staff had to bring buckets of water into the school from another site to flush the toilets.
Bottled water was also brought in and hand sanitizer was provided so that students could wash their hands.
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