EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
New database delivers crash information Page 3
Fun, festivity and fireworks at celebration Page 7
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 PM40008236
Vol. 53 No. 32 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (HST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Water quality shows signs of improvement Boil water: District ‘Do Not Consume’ notice downgraded Friday. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
While a boil water notice isn’t normally good news, in Sicamous it is. On the morning of Thursday, Aug. 2, the District of Sicamous was finally able to lift its Do Not Consume notice. With there still being high turbidity, Interior Health guidelines require a Boil Water notice be in effect. “While the water is still cloudy and has some colour, it appears from all tests conducted from an accredited laboratory that it meets Canadian drinking water guidelines,” states the district’s Aug. 2 news release. The release explains district water has been continuously disinfected with chlorine, and there have been no bad bacteriological sample results. As of Aug. 2, turbidity levels, or cloudiness, were at 33 NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit). A normal turbidity level is between 0 and 1, while
Far from bored: Under his parent’s supervision, Rylan McClusky practises swimming in the waters at the Sicamous Beach Park. Photo by James Murray
See Potable on page 3
Public balks at provincial plan for Sicamous Creek upgrade Catch to proposal: District would be responsible for maintenance. By Lachlan Labere Eagle Valley News
The B.C. government’s proposed fix for Sicamous Creek isn’t sitting well with Two Mile residents or Sicamous Mayor Darrell Trouton. On Friday afternoon, in what was an often heated public meeting in Sicamous council chambers, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) revealed the province’s plan for restoring the creek to its single channel location prior to the destructive June 23 debris flow.
Before revealing the plan, Murray Tekano, MOTI’s district manager for the Okanagan Shuswap, explained an engineering firm was hired by the province to assess and make recommendations for restoring the channel, as defined by the highway bridge, so as to protect Two Mile from future high water events – up to and including a 200-year debris flow such as what was seen June 23 on Sicamous Creek. “I can confirm, that their analysis is that, without any work done on this channel, today that channel would pass the 200-year flood waters, with high water on Mara Lake,” said Tekano. “There’s been a minor tweaking I’m sure, and there will be some armouring adjacent to the highway See No answers on page 2
Riprap: Stakes along Sicamous Creek show where the province plans to begin one side of a channel “armouring” project that is supposed to help prevent destruction from future debris flows. Photo by Lachlan Labere