Riondel

Riondel

I got a commission to work on a little community on the east shore of Kootenay Lake called

Riondel. I was hired to do a survey of an area where a whole barge had sunk off a little dock.

This chap wanted to reclaim the barge. He had to figure out how to siphon up the fine powder

around the “treasure.” He tried inventing many different methods. The same fellow decided to

buy a big property that had been a smelter. It had a brick chimney, but there was a lot of property

there with lake frontage. In the end, we made probably thirty or more desirable lots.

But we had to start from scratch. The road into the property was not maintained by the

government. People would drive into it and camp in the area. This fellow bought the whole

property, but some of the other people in the area reacted badly to the idea of subdividing the

property. I had a real run in with one chap who even put a gate up on one of the roads and said

people could not go in there.

He had no business doing this. He was just acting on behalf of the other people, some of whom

did not want any development in the area. But I went in one day with a chain cutter, a big thing

like scissors, and I cut the lock. In my opinion, this was a public road.

The owner had already gone to Victoria and found out that if any public money is spent on a

road built by the government, and if the owner consents, the road automatically becomes a public

road.

Others disagreed. The fellow who had put the gate up even came to the ferry landing where we

were waiting to be picked up on the lake. He chewed me out in the presence of my wife and four

children, saying that the road was not proper. But I was working for a client and doing what was

right. In my opinion, it was a public road, and it was known as such. I had the job of subdividing

that land. I laid out some very nice properties in the area.

There are more than thirty or so homesites there. Some of them are just summer homes owned by

wealthy people from Alberta. But then the health officer from Creston came by to make sure that

there was an adequate place for the sewage system, which was his biggest concern. Since every

one of these lots got their water from the lake, powerlines had to be put in, so they could have

electric pumps. I happened to be there the day the health officer was up. He was much stricter

about the sites than the chaps in the Nelson area. But he was very constructive and nice. We

reviewed each and every one of the lots.

The health officer had to arrange a test on another property in the area. There was a small

excavator back home in Nelson. We got a hold of the owner of this machine. The health officer

had to go and catch the guy and talk him into bringing the excavator over. We did a test on the

property, made a minor adjustment on the lot, and then the health officer okayed it.

I still remember the health officer saying that if there was a good place for a septic field on the

property, it did not always have to be below the house site. On a couple of the properties, they

had to pump waste out of the septic tank back up under the upper part of the property. Not down.

Usually, the septic fields would be in the front of the property or below the house so that you had

just gravity. But it started to become well known that when electricity was available, you could

have a larger than normal tank and store the sewage for a couple of days without the pouring of

sewage water, and then the power would be reenergized within a couple of days.

Then you could pump the sewer out and pump the sewage to the upper reaches of the property. I

thought that was pretty nice of the fellow to provide this prudent and correct advice. In some

other places, if they could not put the sewage field where an inspector thought it should be, the

lot would not be approved.

On one property, the sewage was actually pumped onto a neighbour's property. At the time, the

chap owned both properties. On the homesite, which was too close to the lakeshore, there was no

place for a sewage tank, so he had discharged an easement up to the other property. Eventually,

he sold that other property. So, the purchaser had his neighbour’s sewage system on his property.

But although the arrangement was legal, it was not really the right thing to do, I guess. But as

long as there is more than enough room for two different sewage systems on the same property,

these arrangements are acceptable.