A North Okanagan community has an improved water service.
The Regional District of North Okanagan has spent about $150,000 on upgrades to the Whitevale water utility, which serves 92 homes.
“These upgrades improve reliability of the station,” said Rick Fairbairn, rural Lumby director.
Among the work is replacing the old pumps with three submersible pumps of various horsepower.
“The old pumps were located inside the station, drawing water up from the reservoir via a suction pipe,” said Fairbairn.
“If air was able to leak into the suction pipe, the pumps would shut off and customers would be out of water until an operator could respond.”
The second upgraded involved installing a backup generator to allow the utility to continue to operate during power outages.
“These upgrades do not eliminate outages. Planned or unplanned maintenance may require outages or water restrictions,” said Fairbairn.
Federal funding was received for the improvements.