{"id":550853,"date":"2026-03-21T09:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550853\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T09:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:08:15","slug":"water-advisory-issued-after-west-kelowna-water-reservoir-intentionally-damaged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550853\/","title":{"rendered":"Water advisory issued after West Kelowna water reservoir \u2018intentionally damaged\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of West Kelowna<\/a>, B.C., has issued a water advisory for some residents after it was discovered that a nearby reservoir was intentionally damaged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Thursday, West Kelowna city workers were notified of an alarm going off at the Tallus Ridge water reservoir<\/a>, and when they inspected the facility, they found what they believed to be intentional damage.<\/p>\n

As a result, the city issued a do-not-consume-water advisory for a portion of the Rose Valley water service area<\/a>, which includes Tallus Ridge and Shannon Woods and impacts about 300 residents.<\/p>\n

Residents in the affected zone are asked not to use tap water for drinking or food preparation until further updates are provided.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have to react based on worst-case scenario,\u201d Patrick Pulak, general manager of operations for the City of West Kelowna, told Global News.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo it is concerning from that perspective, the fact that there\u2019s the potential that your water supply in that area has been contaminated. So yeah, it\u2019s, we have to treat it as the worst-case scenario, and it\u2019s very concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pulak explained that the intrusion alarm was triggered at the reservoir by the hatch being opened, prompting crews to isolate the reservoir from the distribution system, then notify the city, Interior Health and the RCMP.<\/p>\n

Residents were first notified on Thursday night about the water advisory and Pulak said they are advising that residents not consume any of the water, even if it\u2019s boiled.<\/p>\n

It can be used for washing and having a shower.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a chemical that\u2019s been added to the reservoir, then boiling the water isn\u2019t going to remove that chemical,\u201d Pulak added.<\/p>\n

Crews are now working to empty the reservoir and disinfect it.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterior Health has indicated that the do not consume order will stay in place until we get two samples taken 24 hours apart that come back that have not been contaminated,\u201d Pulak said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo those samples, one was taken this morning, it\u2019s sent off to Vancouver, it gets tested. Another sample will be taken tomorrow morning. It\u2019ll be sent to Vancouver for testing, and then it\u2019s just a matter of us waiting for those results to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If there is evidence of contamination, Pulak said that would be incredibly serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been to the area where this reservoir is, it\u2019s not easily accessible,\u201d he said. \u201cSo somebody had to have some form of intent to go up there and do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Kelowna RCMP are now investigating and are asking anyone in the area of Big Sky Drive on Thursday between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. who saw anything suspicious to contact them at 1-250-768-2880.<\/p>\n

They say they have identified suspects, but no arrests have been made.<\/p>\n

The city has also set up a bulk water station at Shannon Lake and Asquith Roads.<\/p>\n

Anyone can also contact the City of West Kelowna at 1-778-797-1000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of West Kelowna, B.C., has issued a water advisory for some residents after it was discovered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,2169,44,214033,44512],"class_list":{"0":"post-550853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-water-reservoir","13":"tag-west-kelowna"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550853","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=550853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}