Sewage flowing onto road

Penticton's Whitewater Mobile Home Park stinks. 

That's not an insult — it literally reeks, thanks to a backed-up sewage system that residents say they have been asking park management to deal with for years. 

On Saturday, water was overflowing from streetside drains, pooling near residents' homes and smelling unmistakably of feces. And it's not the first time. 

"This sewer problem has been going on since I've lived here, over and over and over," said Ray Prosko, who has been living in the park for seven years.

Some residents, like Prosko, are fed up with repeatedly trying to get property management to do something about it. 

"You got sewage coming across the road constantly, and nobody comes. They send a pump truck, cleans it up, two days later it's all back again," Prosko said. 

Whitewater is managed by Penticton company Stanmar Services, which has not yet responded to requests from Castanet for comment. Multiple residents expressed displeasure with their management, saying they would like to see a better response given that the sewage spill is an ongoing issue.

"This happens quite frequently. Usually he will get somebody out here, but he's just totally ignoring it. And it stinks so bad in my house, it just smells terrible," said Simone Smith, a decades-long resident.

Clare Simpson has lived in the park for five years, and he says he is flummoxed that nothing has been done. 

"It's raw sewage," Simpson said. "The effluent is now going into the storm water drainage system, being untreated and going out the storm water system."

In his experience, he has found park management frustrating to work with. 

"The management is not proactive, it's reactive: 'If there's a problem, and I have to spend the money, I'll fix it,' which is really not the way to do business," Simpson said.

Prosko said his problems with the sewage have gotten to the point that he plans to move away as soon as he can. 

"I'm just tired of this. Over and over and over."