More bacteria is being detected in Calgary’s water supply as land shifts from farmland to acreages.
The higher bacterial load is attributed to agricultural runoff, country residential septic tanks and contaminants left behind by swimmers, boaters and anglers who use the increasingly popular Bow and Elbow rivers.
“The E. coli in the upper Elbow is an indicator of pathogens,” Jamie Dixon, a member of the city’s water quality services, said at the recent Bow River science forum held at the University of Calgary.
Dixon said the city has 29 quality monitoring sites on the Bow and Elbow rivers and Glenmore and Bearspaw reservoirs to assess potential risk up and down stream.
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Many of the problems are subtle as land use changes. Ultimately, planners may have to demand greater setbacks for developments to control runoff that carries pollutants such as bacteria, pharmaceuticals, caffeine and pesticides.
Dixon said the city has looked at the impact of cattle and horses grazing upstream of Calgary to see if they added to the higher bacterial counts. There were some impacts but the problem is also connected to storm water runoff carrying waste from pets and wildlife and possibly homeless people using the rivers as a toilet.
The city has three sewage treatment plants and Dixon said with upgrades in recent years, the purified water released back into the rivers is better than when it arrived.
However, problems periodically crop up. The last serious situation was in 1992 when an algae-causing organism turned the water a golden brown colour and gave it a swampy odour.
“We have intermittent taste and odour problems,” Dixon said.
