When North Battleford, Sask., residents were advised in late April to boil their water, they joined a long list of people who have been doing that for months, if not years.
Thirty-eight Saskatchewan communities are under precautionary drinking water advisories, which means residents have been advised to boil water before drinking it.
Residents in two communities – North Battleford and Ruddell – have been ordered to boil their water.
Most boil water advisories were issued last December in communities that lack minimum water treatment processes as defined by the province, said Sam Ferris, a manager in Sask-atchewan’s environmental protection branch.
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“Those advisories stay on until that is corrected,” he said.
Some advisories have been in place for years because the communities are unable to upgrade their treatment systems.
Twenty-one of the communities under advisories learned May 11 they will receive funding to upgrade their water supply systems. The Canada-Saskatchewan Infrastructure Program will pay about two-thirds of the cost.
Other communities received advisories for various reasons. In Spruce Lake, for example, the advisory was issued when turbidity increased.
In Manitoba, seven communities are boiling water. All seven are small communities that don’t have municipal water systems, but use septic fields and wells in residential backyards, said Jim Popplow, medical officer of environmental health.
Popplow said these wells were flooded in June 2000 and are contaminated. Many of the backyard systems are between 30 and 40 years old and that is also a concern.
Several of these communities have applied for infrastructure funding through the Canada-Manitoba agreement.
“We’re encouraged that the people are aware they have older well and septic systems,” Popplow said.
He noted that Manitoba has 350 municipal water distribution systems. All the systems follow the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality and all are operating satisfactorily, he said.
The number of boil water advisories in Alberta was not available at press time. Last year, the province’s 17 health regions issued a total of 13 advisories.
Paul Hasselback, medical health officer for the Chinook region, said clarity problems are usually an indication that a system isn’t working properly.
He said bacterial tests take 24 hours, while tests for parasites take four to five days.
“Clarity testing we can do on-line, literally,” he said. “It’s one of the first measures that the system isn’t working appropriately.”
Hasselback said Alberta is one of just two provinces that have written the Canadian drinking water guidelines into their own legislation.
