Residents living in the Campbell Creek area will no doubt be looking forward to 2013.

That’s about the time when they will be able to turn on their taps and see city water come out the spout.

And, for residents who have been drinking the hard well-water for years, it couldn’t come fast enough.

“It’s about time,” Doug Hayner, a resident who lives in Gateway Estates, told KTW.

“We’re very happy council is making an effort to get us water.”

Hayner and other residents in Campbell Creek have been fighting for years to have their water supplied by the Kamloops Centre for Water Quality (KCWQ).

The community relies on water from a five-well system originally built in the 1980s and designed to supply industrial-zoned lands.

According to a city report, though the water meets national standards, the H2O is considered hard and problems with high iron content have been noted.

Both conditions are considered to be an “aesthetic problem” and not a health issue.

But residents insist the water isn’t safe to drink and were prepared to have the water analyzed to prove its danger.

“Even my dog won’t drink the water,” Hayner said.

However, a move this week by the city is set to change all that.

City council has approved a project to bring Campbell Creek online with the KCWQ, at a cost of $2 million.

A connection already exists, but is closed off and only for emergency use.

To complete the switch, a booster pumping station will be required, while some mains through Dallas will need to

be increased.

Construction on the project will start in 2012, with a

completion date expected in 2013.

While Coun. Tina Lange argued residents in the community should pay a levy to get the water, the suggestion was quickly voted down by a majority of council.

Coun. Marg Spina said when Campbell Creek was accepted as part of the city, residents had an expectation they would have good, potable water to drink.

She said the community has lived with a difficult situation for some time, suggesting the change is “forward progress.

“We need to have good, clean water — just as everyone else in the city gets — for our Campbell Creek residents,” she said.

As for Hayner and the rest of his neighbours, he said they just want what everyone else in the city already has — “equal water.”