A group of Naramata residents are frustrated that not much has been done to tackle the ongoing excessive water run-off from developments above their homes since the first incident four years ago. Last week, when a rain storm rolled in Tuesday night, water flowed down the hillside from the Vista development, sending rocks and mud down the hillside all over the Stonebrook subdivision. Dave Maw and Lynn Held have lived in Stonebrook since 2017, after being awarded the PNE Lottery Home Award in 2016. What they didn’t expect was that their next four years would be flooded by runoff. “Our property, originally in 2018, had a slide that came down from above and went between our house and the next property. He did a lot of damage on my road and we had a lot of cleanup to do,” Maw said. “We were told at the time that this was just a once-in-a-lifetime incident.” This phenomenon began to become regular over the years for the area, with residents watching the hills above whenever heavy rains came or they started to melt. “Almost every year since we’ve had some water runoff. And another bad one was this one in June where we had a blowout from above where they had a berm and it didn’t hold the water and it let loose,” Held said. “I get scared every time it rains, not knowing what’s going to fall.” “I live in constant fear. I don’t sleep at night, because I worry that something is going to happen. And it’s just draining, just completely draining and nothing seems to be resolved.” Norbert Lacis has lived in the area since 2015 and while his home has never been affected by the runoff, he is unhappy that his community has had to deal with it. “2018 was the first time we really saw a problem,” Lacis said. “Here we are, four years later, and nothing has changed. So we’ve had another rainfall event, and more mud, water and rock is coming down the hillside, damaging some property and the roads and infrastructure around this subdivision.” “There were some parts that were damaged, the road was completely covered with rock debris. And it went down and went on to the next street and into the pool there, like a lake, and it flooded.” From the beginning, the property owners say they have tried to get answers from the project developer, the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) and the Ministry of Forestry. “No one is taking any responsibility. And there doesn’t seem to be any oversight or planning to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Maw said. He added that to the developer’s credit, they took some responsibility and tried to repair the damage by adding waterways, clearing debris and fixing the road damage. But small fixes don’t solve the underlying issues. Residents feel it is at the point where all government bodies need to come together to work on a fix as areas continue to expand further into the hillside across the valley. RDOS CAO Bill Newell said the Regional District has not been assigned any role in stormwater management or sewer systems by the provincial government, nor is it a subdivision approval authority. He added that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, which is responsible for storm drainage in regional districts, is also looking into the matter. Castanet contacted the MoTI for a comment, but they were unavailable by the time of publication. “I don’t think it’s getting enough attention and I don’t think our elected representatives are doing enough to prevent this from happening again,” Lacis said. “There’s a lot of room there for the RDOS to be really proactive and put some things in place to protect residents like us. But for whatever reason, they’re not interested in doing that, and I just don’t understand why,” he added, pointing to other regional areas that use permitting systems that control what developers do on dangerous properties like hillsides. “It’s not just mud and rock and stuff on a road, this is a safety issue for the people who live under these developments … Something has to change.” Residents contacted local MLA Dan Ashton, who arranged to speak to them next week. “I personally think it’s up to the developers working with the regional district and the province to make sure everyone is protected from these events,” Ashton said. “I’m not talking about subdivisions specifically, right, because it’s going to be a whole sector that’s going to have to work together.” “As development takes place and disrupts the hillside, we will all collectively have to deal with the possibility of this happening more and more often. And this should not be on the backs of the citizens.” When the Legislative Assembly reconvenes on October 3, Ashton plans to raise the issues. “The Ministry approves the subdivisions. I think it is up to the Ministry to ensure that there is adequate drainage,” he said. “One person cannot solve this problem and as development takes place in the hills, we all need to make sure that proper drainage is done in all aspects of it, be it roads or works.
