While a national drinking water safety conference was under way in Regina, people were dying from unhealthy water in southern Ontario.
As of June 5, seven deaths from E. coli had been confirmed in the rural community of Walkerton. Even though the town has a water treatment plant, there is no legal requirement for testing, only “an obligation” to test according to provincial environment officials. Four other deaths were still under investigation.
“While I was telling government officials that smaller municipal and other rural drinking water wasn’t safe, the water was killing people in Ontario … We’ve told them before. They have to know it can happen anywhere in rural Canada,” said Hans Peterson of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation in Saskatoon.
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He said larger urban centres have safe drinking water because they are located near high quality sources and have well-designed water treatment plants. Smaller communities and farms are at risk from water-borne disease, he said.
In the last two weeks, there was a 60 percent increase in water test requests at the provincial laboratory in Regina in the wake of the Walkerton situation. In the first week of May there were 545 requests. In the last week, there were 885. Officials in Edmonton and Winnipeg report similar interest.
George Khachatourians of the University of Saskatchewan said the Walkerton tragedy was inevitable. The microbiologist has warned of the public health risks of E. coli in medical health journals and other reports for several years.
“It was just a matter of time until it happened,” he said.
A 1995 Health Canada study presented to Ontario public health officials in 1997 warned of the risk of E. coli infections in southern Ontario water supplies. More than 3,000 cases were recorded and mapped in that province between 1990 and 1995. Most of those came from rural, livestock producing areas, including Bruce County where Walkerton is located.
“Whatever is your drainage basin ends up in your water supply and not enough attention is paid to that in rural areas,” said Peterson.
The federal government publishes water quality guidelines but regulations and enforcement are the responsibility of the provinces.
Municipal water supplies that have water treatment must be tested regularly, say officials.
Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration researchers say most rural water is safe, especially well water, but farmers should test it regularly.
“Ground water quality is generally pretty safe but testing is really the only way to know,” said Phil Adkins of the PFRA.
Adkins recommended that most farm water be treated in form through filtration, ultraviolet light or chlorination.
