Melanie McEwen stands next to her trailer at Caledonia Mobile Home Park, the scent of raw sewage lingers in the air while she speaks about the six months that the water was shut off every night.
The mother of four recalls getting up to clean her sick son of the vomit in his bed and on his body, only to find the taps dry. She did her best with wet wipes and had to wait until morning to put his bedding through the washing machine.
Earlier this month, McEwen walked the two lanes around her home, wielding three pages of complaints and getting 13 other residents to sign several petitions, calling on the park owner to truck in water, deal with the sewage and other problems.
On the other side of the park, Joanne Provencal sits beside a stack of paper on a picnic table. A hummingbird silhouette is tacked to the door and two more peek from a planter box with bright fake flowers by her steps.
The 59-year-old fans the dozen notices from management, collected over six months, warning the water will be shut off various times during the day.
That's over and above the December notice that advised water would be shut off regularly from 1 to 5 a.m. Since October, the park's aging water system, built in the 1960s, has worsened. Weak water pressure plagued the residents for years and in an effort to fill the 24,000 gallon reservoir, the park shut the water nightly to its more than 160 trailers.
Last week, Northern Health told owner Peter Wang he couldn't do that anymore - "This is a Public Health issue," an environmental health officer wrote in a June 3 email - so now it's only every three days.
Things look to be improving - Wang has hired L&M Engineering after its $90,000 quote on a system upgrade that could start in a couple months - and area owners are in talks with the city to start the long process of linking into its more reliable sewage and well water system.
But Provencal says she's heard those promises before.
She says she's watched the quality of the park decline in the 33 years she's lived on North Nechako Road park and even more so since Wang of Mirae Investments bought the park in 2010.
"Why did he wait until problems got so bad?" says Provencal.
In 2013, the park made news for going several days without water, and the property manager at the time acknowledged the park's leaking pipes.
In a May 27 email to the city and Northern Health, Wang acknowledged "lengthy problems" over the last six years.
"In the past, we tried very hard and every way to fix our problems," Wang wrote.
"We never neglect any problem. We tried to fix any problem as soon as we could. We realized that It is time to upgrade our infrastructure like the waterline and sewer system now."
Several residents spoke of the sewage system, as old as the leaking water lines, being emptied less regularly and sometimes bubbling out the lines. Four spoke of it coming into their homes, seeping up through tubs and toilets and drenching the floor.
"It wasn't just liquid," says Provencal of what spilled across her bathroom.
Northern Health has jurisdiction over on-site private sewage and water systems the city doesn't serve. While the health authority hadn't heard of sewage in the homes, it did say it started meeting with Wang after complaints "around sewer blockages and drinking water disruptions."
"I can't talk about particulars, but what I can say is the owner has been very cooperative and has been working on the development of expedited plans to correct both the sewer and the water issues," said Doug Quibell, regional manager of environmental health.
Quibell said it's always better to work with a cooperative owner than take a remedial approach.
While most of the 11 residents The Citizen spoke to were frustrated with what they said was a decline in services and failure to provide consistent water, others understand the park is working on its problems.
Chuck Nisbett, a 12-year resident, became the Caledonia's water manager in 2014 after being frustrated by the water problems.
Since late fall, he said the owner has fixed about 40 leaks, estimating tens of thousands of dollars have been spent.
"It just seemed to have accelerated from then," said Nisbett, who also works as a pressmen at The Citizen.
His wife was recently named property manager for Wang's six trailer courts, including Caledonia, and some other residential and commercial buildings, he said.
"The water from the reservoir has been leaking out before it's reaching the trailers in the park. We've been working with Northern Health on this and it's quite huge. It's a challenging project."
With L&M on board, the park can start upgrading over the next year but will have to stagger improvements to keep water flowing into all the units.
"It's not an easy thing to do, you have 169 trailers and families... you can't just shut off water," Nisbett says.
He defended shutting off the water at night for the last number of months as a necessity to fill the tank, and noted now that he's stopped doing that, he's received complaints about worse water pressure.
"That was deemed the best time to do it and caused the least inconvenience to everybody involved," Nisbett said.
"It becomes a matter of the needs of the many and the needs of the few. How many people are up between 1 and 5 a.m.?"
Nisbett has a very different perspective than some residents, and says there are more like him who feel Wang has been investing in the property.
"The system is old and it takes a huge influx of money," Nisbett says. "They've committed to putting the money into it. I don't see that as a slum landlord or a negligent landlord, I see it as someone who's working hard to make it happen."
McEwen uses those exact same words when discussing Wang.
"I'm embarrassed to state that I live here," says the 43-year-old who bought the trailer eight years ago, which sits at the end of the line where the sewage is emptied.
She says it isn't fair she pays a pad fee that climbs every year for services that have worsened. Her petition argues if the reservoir isn't filled through the pumps, "water should be hauled into the reservoir to provide us with our needs."
That can't happen, says Nisbett, because the road to the tank can't carry a water truck and people need to understand it takes time to fix an old system.
Not her problem, says McEwen.
"Haul it in," said McEwan, who is also frustrated the park doesn't have fire hydrants. "Get buckets, hire somebody...That's not our (problem) as tenants who pay our bills. Or reimburse us and we'll haul our own water in. Quit giving damn excuses. It's his responsibility, not mine, not my neighbours.
"It is a service that we pay for here that he chooses not to fulfill his end of the bargain but yet he will not give anybody a break on anything."
McEwen said she's disappointed with the whole system. She's looked into complaints but can't spare the $100 it will cost to complain to the Residential Tenancy Branch.
"What recourse do I have?"
One 30-year-old mother of two said the water problems haven't affected her much.
"I haven't run into that issue," said Nicole Middlemiss. "To me it's not a big problem as long as I have water in the morning. If I can, I just put (some) in a bucket outside. I just kind of live with the strokes."
Unlike McEwan, she doesn't think the quality of the park has changed since Wang's ownership, pointing to the times he's fixed leaks.
"I'm not going to complain when I know it's going to be fixed," she said. "They have to do small problems fixed before the big ones."
WorkSafeBC had seven inspection report documents related to the park, with two separate fines. In 2015, the park was fined $5,000 in connection with a July 2014 inspection into various safety-related problems related to how they were fixing the pipes.
"The employer has excavated this ground to repair pipes that have burst and are flooding the soil and not supplying the trailer home owner with water," the report said.
Wang was also fined $2,500 in relation to excavation work in 2013 that failed to use a "qualified registered professional" as is required.
For the major upgrades, Caledonia got quotes from two different companies, Opus DaytonKnight Consultants Ltd. and L&M Engineering Ltd., which Wang retained.
Wang said by email to Northern Health and the city he is willing to work with both to solve the problems
"We are not against any plan or ignore any suggestion or complaint. As long as it is feasible, we will do it. We are open for Northern Health's advice and suggestion or order," he wrote.
The report by Opus for Wang, listed as CEO of Vancouver Investors Club, questioned how Caledonia was approaching its repairs to the water system, calling the concept "atypical."
If the system was replaced using the traditional method, there would be 17 pipes. As proposed, there will be roughly 240 pipes. If there are issues, this means that there will be considerably more places for issues to occur.
"While the proposed distribution replacement is directed at leakage, Opus flags that the well capacity, the well pump, reservoir leakage and the reservoir transmission main may themselves have issues."
L&M Engineering's proposal is less detailed but gives Wang the option of installing fire hydrants.
"It is our interpretation of the bylaw that you are not required to upgrade the existing system to include hydrants and you are allowed to repair or replace the existing system without having to meet the standards of the bylaw with respect to fire protection," stated the report, authored by Darryl Brizan.
That means it can use 100 mm diameter or smaller pipe rather than the 150 to 200 mm diameter water main loop needed to withstand a fire hydrant pressure. L&M said it based its proposal on 50 mm or smaller water distribution pipes with multiple water distribution centers similar to a recent design it did for Wang at Meadows Mobile Home Park.
Meanwhile, as communication between the park's owner, engineers and government agencies continues, Huguette Zuehlke, a 67-year-old school secretary, said friends tease her about living in a slum area. She calls the park's approach cheap.
"It's always this Mickey Mouse stuff," says Zuehlke. "It's all to try to save money. Eventually it will cost them way more. What we're losing is the enjoyment of living here.
"It's the security of living in an area that is well taken care of," she says. "My dreaded thing is we spend weekend on the lake and come home on Sunday to crap in the bathroom.
"You always have that uncertainty of what else is going to happen. So what's your joy of living here?
Zuehlke and her husband live with that uncertainty and say they feel stuck because of the park's reputation.
"If we decide to sell our home, what is the selling feature?"
