{"id":793393,"date":"2026-07-10T19:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/793393\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:06:10","slug":"people-living-at-this-hamilton-resort-have-now-gone-more-than-40-days-under-a-boil-water-advisory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/793393\/","title":{"rendered":"People living at this Hamilton resort have now gone more than 40 days under a boil water advisory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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People at a Hamilton resort, which one resident described as “living in paradise,” have now been stuck for more than 40 days under a boil water advisory.<\/p>\n

Mary Kovacs, who has been living at Fernbrook Resort since 2010, said she was told the advisory would be lifted by June 19, but when the date came and went, she said she “heard nothing.”<\/p>\n

Tenant advocacy group ACORN said residents are now asking for compensation from the resort owners.<\/p>\n

Kovacs says she’s seen other advisories in the past, but none lasted this long.<\/p>\n

The advisory came in on May 26, warning residents of the resort to not swallow the water. Those who want to use it for basics like drinking, cooking, washing produce or brushing teeth must either boil or buy their water.<\/p>\n

Kovacs, 66, said boiling water inside her small home has made it difficult to keep cool during heat waves that have hit the region in recent weeks and cases of water are hard for her to lift.<\/p>\n

“[A] letter from the landowner said that they’ll have water for us up front. But many of us seniors can’t carry cases of water,” she said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | This RV park hasn’t had safe drinking water for 40 days:\"\"<\/p>\n

This RV park hasn’t had safe drinking water for 40 days<\/p>\n

People living at Fernbrook Resort in Hamilton, an RV park in part, have been under a boil water advisory for over 40 days. Last they heard, the advisory could last another month.Their rent should be waived, tenant advocacy group says<\/p>\n

In a statement, Hamilton Public Health said the advisory is in place as a precaution. It also said this is a private, non-municipal water system that was recently taken over by a new company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The new private operator determined that the existing water system did not yet meet its operational standards,” the city said, citing issues with a UV disinfection system and adding that the advisory will be in place until the problem is resolved.<\/p>\n

Public Health also said bacteriological sampling is being conducted every two weeks by the operator “and all results have been satisfactory to date.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to say it’s contaminated because they keep saying it’s not, but whether it is or not, it’s still a boil water advisory, which means do not drink the water,” said Kovacs, who lives at the resort full-time with her dog, Molly. Some of her neighbours stay at the resort seasonally.<\/p>\n

In a letter given to residents, Gunnell Engineering, an engineering firm in charge of liaising between Fernbrook Resort and the water operator, said the UV system needed repairs that couldn’t be completed because the parts needed can’t be sourced anymore. It also said they had to design new UV units.<\/p>\n

In another letter from the resort dated June 26, it said the work might take four to six weeks and that it’s offering bottled water during operating hours.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson with Gunnell Engineering told CBC Hamilton in an email the repairs have been made and the company expects the boil water advisory to be lifted by July 15.<\/p>\n

\"SinageFernbrook Resort is located near Freelton in Hamilton. (Aura Carre\u00f1o Rosas\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Bijan Shahir, chairperson of the ACORN Mountain Chapter, said in other cases where there has been service disruption, “rent can be waived.”<\/p>\n

“We would like to see some sort of compensation in the form of waived rent for the tenants,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the advisory has been difficult for residents.<\/p>\n

“Not having access to potable water is something that normally you wouldn’t have to think of. But once you do \u2026 you have that extra step. That’s pretty taxing, especially if you have other things to deal with.”<\/p>\n

The resort is located just outside of Freelton, Ont., and features an outdoor pool, bars, ponds and green space.<\/p>\n

“We live in paradise, and I’m trying to save it for everybody here so that we can enjoy our retirement,” said Kovacs.<\/p>\n

CBC Hamilton reached out to Fernbrook Resort several times, but did not hear back before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-793393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793393","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=793393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}