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Clearwater residents can turn on their taps without worry again after an unexpected shutdown drained the community's reservoir.

The reservoir has been filled and the water is now safe to drink as of Oct. 10, but the District of Clearwater is now looking to improve its security while RCMP investigate who tampered with the system.

"What was there in the first place obviously wasn't strong enough," Mayor Merlin Blackwell. "We need to make that thing impenetrable."

Workers were surprised to find there was no water in the system and the sudden shortage prompted a precautionary boil water advisory on Sunday, Oct. 6.

As of Thursday morning, the water is once again safe to drink after successful tests by Interior Health, Blackwell said.

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District staff noticed the water levels down Sunday morning amid a planned BC Hydro outage. The computerized system was showing normal water levels because the gauges at the reservoir had no power.

"By the time BC Hydro turned the power off, we had no ability to recover once we started finding out through social media that certain neighbourhoods were going down," Blackwell said.

He said staff searched Clearwater to find evidence of a burst pipe or an open fire hydrant on Sunday, but it was later discovered a power switch with 600 volts behind it connected to the reservoir system had been shut off, which was in a remote location behind a locked box and not directly near the District's water facility. 

"It has a big handle like an old school paper cutter. You have to yank that sucker down." Merlin said. "It's not like a breaker or anything that would just turn itself off. It was intentionally done."

The water drained overnight, leaving homes in lower elevation neighbourhoods with water through the District's gravity-fed system. Blackwell added that boil water advisories are not uncommon when a pipe breaks, which can happen at least once per year, but tampering with the system is a new challenge.

A heavy downpour of rain over the weekend likely obstructed chances of gathering evidence from tire tracks or foot prints in the area of the switch, Blackwell said.

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"Since then, we documented the site," he said. "As far as an investigation, it's going to have to rely on someone coming forward with someone they think did this or something they overheard."

BC RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Vanessa Munn said police received the report Oct. 7 and it's so far being investigated as mischief.

"Even though at this time they have determined the cause of the disruption, the RCMP has not yet determined the full circumstances of the incident. Whether or not this was an intentional act to disrupt the water is still ongoing," she said.

Police have not identified any suspects so far. 

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