The City of Kamloops says all water advisories related to last week’s major feeder main break in east Kamloops have now been lifted, with Barnhartvale officially cleared for normal water use.
In a news release issued Thursday morning (May 21), the city announced specialized testing confirmed the Barnhartvale water supply is safe to drink, allowing officials to rescind the area’s remaining Do Not Consume advisory.
Barnhartvale had been the final neighbourhood under restrictions following the water main break that disrupted service to roughly 19,000 residents and 7,500 homes earlier this month.
City officials previously said the neighbourhood required additional testing because crews could not confirm the area maintained positive water pressure during the outage. Concerns had also been raised due to nearby agricultural and industrial land uses, prompting more rigorous chemical analysis beyond standard bacterial testing.
The samples were sent to specialized laboratories outside the region, contributing to the longer wait for results.
With the advisory now lifted, the city says the potable water truck stationed on Eliza Road in Barnhartvale will be decommissioned at 10 p.m. Thursday night.
The end of the advisory also clears the way for the city to begin reviewing its response to the incident.
“Right now, from an operations point of view, we’re still concentrating on getting everything up and running to get people in potable water,” said Assistant Civic Operations Director Joe Luison. “Once that’s completed, we’ll start looking at the results of that.”
Luison said a broader review and debrief will follow, but the immediate focus has remained restoring safe drinking water to affected residents.
“Like I’ve mentioned before, we always do a debrief of what’s going on in a review,” he said. “But first we got to get through the task at hand still, and that’s getting people back into potable water throughout that community.”
“The City thanks you for your ongoing patience and co-operation during this situation,” Thursday’s release stated.
The announcement marks the end of nearly a week of drinking water restrictions in east Kamloops following repairs to the damaged feeder main.
