Update:
The last of three water main breaks has been fixed and service has been restored to customers in the Westridge and golf course subdivisions, Terra Ridge, Wotzke Drive and Hodgson Road in Williams Lake.
Manager of public works Pat Mahood said crews completed the work Tuesday evening, but a boil water advisory remains in place until further notice.
The first water main break interrupted service beginning Sunday, Jan. 10, leaving residents at Terra Ridge in Williams Lake without water.
Two of the breaks have been repaired and crews are continuing to repair the third one, said manager of public works Pat Mahood Tuesday afternoon.
“When the first break was repaired, we were repressuring and a second break was either discovered or happened,” Mahood told the Tribune.“When we were repressuring last night, a third break appeared upstream of the initial two which is what the crews are working on right now.”
Mahood said the break is hampering filling the Woodland Drive reservoir so the city is hauling potable water to the reservoir to attempt to restore some domestic service to the area.
“I’ve never experienced this sort of situation before, we are mitigating as best we can,” Mahood said. “For anyone who is out of water, and some customers are in the Terra Ridge side, we are supplying bottled water.”
Shower services are being offered effective immediately through the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex to affected residents by utilizing the ice arena dressing rooms from Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., until the water situation is corrected, he added.
There will be designated shower rooms and residents must check in at the recreation complex reception desk prior to accessing the ice arena dressing rooms.
Under the advisory, impacted residents are being asked to heat water to a rolling boil for two minutes before using for drinking, brushing teeth, and making ice or beverages.
Additionally, discolouration of the water may occur due to manganese being stirred in the water mains as the reservoir is filled, the city noted in a news release.
Mahood did not want to speculate about the cause of the breaks.
“It is older infrastructure, but it still has lots of life left in it,” he said. “It’s one of these things. We have water main breaks all over town throughout the course of the year and it’s an unfortunate event that we’ve got a number of them on a dedicated line.”
Residents wanting more information are asked to please contact municipal services at 250-392-1784.
“We will continue with the boil water advisory until we have results back and that takes some time. An out-of-house laboratory does the tests and gets the results back to us,” Mahood said, adding the city put out the boil advisory to err on the side of caution.
Read more: Update: Second water main break impacting customers in Williams Lake
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