Sunshine Valley’s water shortage crisis will not affect its fire department during an emergency, says the fire chief.<\/p>\n
Since Aug. 12, residents of Sunshine Valley have struggled\u00a0with a significant water shortage that has left them with either irregular access or no access to water. This is due to the Trites Creek water system, which the community relies on, having low to no water.<\/p>\n
While the\u00a0situation has been frustrating for the community, Sunshine Valley Fire Chief Aaron Harris said the fire department will still be able to properly respond to incidents in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“What\u00a0we do for our fire department is what we call a superior tanker shuttling system,” Harris said. “We actually have two tenders in our fire department that we use to shuttle water from either the lake, a creek, or our best water source is actually the Holiday Trails RV park.<\/p>\n
“They have a 50 horsepower, around\u00a0800-gallons-a-minute, fire pump. And that pump fills our trucks up in under two minutes.”<\/p>\n
Harris said Holiday Trails’s water system, which is separate from the Trites\u00a0Creek water system, ensures\u00a0the fire department can continue to protect the community during this critical period. He also said that, even when community’s water reservoir is full, the\u00a0fire department still relies on the other water system\/sources first as the water pressure in the Trites Creek system is too low to fill up the fire trucks in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If it wasn’t for that pump that Holiday Trails has, I honestly don’t know how the fire department could run, and help fight a fire at someone’s home,” Harris said. “Even though we have the lake, creeks, and all that. But again, those lakes and creeks also rely on the snow and they could dry up. Where that pump always has water to go, 24\/7. So, I really want to thank Holiday Trails for supplying the water for the fire department.”<\/p>\n
While this news is great for worried residents, especially with the recent wildfire on Mount Forddred, it does highlight how vulnerable the community’s water system is. According to Harris, the Trites Creek water system is entirely dependent on its snowpack being consistent. Typically, Sunshine Valley receives around 14 feet of snow during the winter, which then melts in the spring and summer and fills the community’s water reservoir.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Harris said that the area only received around 18 inches of snow during the 2024 winter, which was\u00a0not enough to adequately supply the community this summer. Today’s situation, which Harris and other residents recognized as a\u00a0possibility a few years ago, had already been brought to the attention of David Bull, the owner of Sunshine Valley Utilities Ltd., which owns and controls the Trites Creek water system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So myself, and a bunch of other people in the valley, have said, ‘hey you might want to look into this.’ And maybe look at some options of how to get water to the valley in case this happens. So, yes, they were aware before this\u00a0water shortage.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time of speaking with The Hope Standard, Harris, a resident of Sunshine Valley since 1992, said that his home had been without water for 13 days straight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an update on Aug. 27, Bull informed residents that they have begun refilling water reserves for the Trites Creek water system.<\/p>\n
“Thanks to the efforts of the SVUL team, Silver Skagit Mechanical, and Holiday Trails Resorts, we have begun refilling the reservoir, restoring full pressure to most households,” Bull said. “Water trucking will continue to supplement supply until intake flow fully recovers.<\/p>\n
“In a major step toward long-term resilience, SVUL has also received provincial approval to begin construction of a new well for the Trites Creek system. Work will commence within the next few weeks.”<\/p>\n
SVUL said the\u00a0problem first began when trees and fallen debris created blockages that\u00a0slowed down the recharge rate at the intake. Bull said the lack of rain and increased water use added to the issue. To help replenish reserves, SVUL began trucking water to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, despite\u00a0water being trucked in by SVUL,\u00a0there are\u00a0still\u00a0days when the community goes\u00a0without\u00a0water, said Ann Phelps, who is involved with the Sunshine Valley community. This, she said, is\u00a0a bigger\u00a0problem for residents living in the\u00a0Parkhill area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s a gravity system. And what happens is that when it runs out of water, the people at the top lose their water first,” Phelps said. “So, there’s around 100 plus lots up in Parkhill. And they are the ones who are hit the most because they’re at the top of that gravity chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“And then, other people\u00a0have said that there was\u00a0a day when\u00a0they didn’t have water, or\u00a0even partial days where they didn’t have water. And then\u00a0there’s been areas with\u00a0cloudy water. Or they have water but with low, low,\u00a0pressure.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
To help with replenishing and stabilizing\u00a0reserves, short-term rental operators and managers have been asked to cancel rentals for the next two weeks. Bull said it is especially important as the\u00a0“upcoming back-to-back long weekends pose a significant challenge to maintaining an adequate water supply for\u00a0year-round residents.”<\/p>\n
Harris also raised concerns about guests of Airbnb’s\u00a0potentially using up more water, due to not realizing that there is a community water shortage.\u00a0He also noted that residents have been doing a great job of conserving\u00a0water during this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunshine Valley’s community pool has also been closed and will not reopen until the water reserve is restored.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mayor Victor Smith, regional district Area B Director Peter Adamo, and Primo Brands have stepped in to support Sunshine Valley during this time.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re incredibly grateful to Mayor Victor Smith and Director Peter Adamo for organizing an emergency water shipment to residents in Sunshine Valley facing a critical shortage,” said the District of Hope via social media. “Special thanks to Primo Brands for stepping up with the much-needed supplies!\u00a0Your generosity & quick action are deeply appreciated by everyone in the community. It\u2019s moments like these that remind us how strong we are when we work together.”<\/p>\n
The Hope Standard has reached out to Bull, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Forests,\u00a0and\u00a0the Ministry of Environment and Parks for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Updates to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunshine Valley’s water shortage crisis will not affect its fire department during an emergency, says the fire chief.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[62402,49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-110262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-breaking-newscommunityhope","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}