It now seems as though the weekend collapse of the water system in Clearwater was done deliberately.

Mayor Merlin Blackwell says a more detailed investigation into the loss of water over from the reservoir and other parts of system on Saturday evening shows someone appears to have knowingly tampered with the computer system which monitors and controls water flows through the community.

“This is not something you can just push. This is not a breaker. This is something that needs to be intentionally turned off.  [It] was open, and had been turned after 9pm.”

While initial fingers had been pointing to a the start of a planned BC Hydro outage as a possible factor, Blackwell notes the loss of water in the system began around 10 hours before that.

“Until you start realizing that you’re seeing the same numbers pop up every hour for a couple of hours… and this was happening overnight,” Blackwell noted. “First thing in the morning, we’ve got 84% in the reservoir. [In retrospect], We had 84% of the reservoir sometime after 9 o’clock the night before.”

Blackwell says even with the system now restored, people in Clearwater are going to continued to be inconvenienced.

“Parts of the line system went dry. The reservoir went dry. All of those areas now, when they refill, will stir up sediment. That sediment can cause issues of concern with Interior Health,” noted Blackwell.  “The boil water advisory has to continue.”

Blackwell says that boil-water advisory will last into Wednesday — and possibly longer.

Clearwater RCMP are now investigating the incident, which Blackwell says is likely to cost the District tens-of-thousands of dollars once system and security upgrades, as well as staff costs, are factored in.