B.C. Interior communities face millions in water upgrades, including former home of the 'world's best water'

Happily retired and surviving successful the tiny eastbound Kootenay colony of Canal Flats, Gayle Lake ne'er expected to go an adept successful municipal h2o systems.

"Our h2o prime has ever been amazing," she said, praising the cleanable but untreated good h2o flowing from the taps. 

"I've lived successful the assemblage for implicit 40 years, and I don't really retrieve immoderate clip that we've had a boil h2o advisory. There's ne'er been a occupation with the prime oregon quantity of h2o that we have."

Lake is present the unpaid seat of Canal Flat's caller Water Protection and Advisory Committee, tasked with figuring retired a mode to instrumentality Interior Health orders to upgrade and disinfect the h2o system, a task that could outgo the tiny colony of immoderate 800 residents millions of dollars. 

On Monday, March 17, her committee volition clasp a contentious municipality hallway gathering to explicate to residents that portion their h2o is tested and fine, they request to conscionable caller provincial guidelines to mitigate the hazard of h2o contamination.

Lake has yet to person the politician who appointed her to the job.

"We're inactive not implicit it ... We were benignant of taken aback," Mark Dougherty said of the Interior Health missive that warned the colony of wellness orders, adjacent closure of the h2o system, if improvements weren't made.    

"We didn't consciousness that our h2o was an issue.  It's, I think, astir apt the champion h2o successful the valley."

'It's a immense challenge. We admit it'

New, tougher, provincial standards and investigating came into effect aft 2016 legislative changes to B.C.'s Drinking Water Protection Act, peculiarly concerning tests for Ground Water astatine Risk of Containing Pathogens (GARP).

Floods, dense rains, and spillage tin perchance contaminate good h2o with workplace discarded oregon chemicals. The deeper the well, the little the hazard from unsafe pathogens similar E. coli, giardia, oregon cryptosporidium.   

"If a good h2o is utilized without immoderate signifier of [disinfectant] treatment, past determination is the imaginable for assemblage outbreaks, and we person seen those," says Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health's manager of biology nationalist wellness and licensing, who oversees immoderate 2,000 regulated h2o systems successful the region.   

"The biggest illustration evidently is places similar Walkerton."

In 2000, runoff from farms contaminated the Ontario town's good water.  More than 2,000 radical fell sick from E. coli gastroenteritis. Seven residents died, and others were near with chronic illnesses.

As a effect of the caller standard, Interior Health ordered dozens of communities to prosecute consultants to execute caller GARP tests and reassess the hazard of good contamination. 

"It's a immense challenge. We admit it," said Zimmerman. 

"It's a occupation that takes a batch of assemblage effort, takes planning, takes work, and unluckily takes wealth to work." 

Canal Flats, Fruitvale's Beaver Falls Water Works, and Greenwood each got caught by the caller standards. 

'World's Best Municipal Water'

Dean Trumbley, the main administrative serviceman of the City of Greenwood, says the irony of the quality wasn't mislaid connected residents utilized to boasting astir its bound portion pat water. 

"I'm not happy," helium says, "You know, the archetypal effect is like, everybody [saying] 'how bash you spell from having the world's champion h2o to each of a abrupt having to disinfect it?'"

In 2012, Greenwood won the rubric of "World's Best Municipal Water" astatine the 22nd yearly International Water Tasting competition.

Trumbley, who has a inheritance moving connected h2o prime issues with different municipalities,  drilled down into the problem,  looking astatine issues similar ineligible liability for contamination, wellness consequences, and the information of the city's aging h2o infrastructure. 

"It's a pugnacious 1 due to the fact that you cognize … it's not necessary," helium said. "Then each of a abrupt thing happens and the world is, particularly with clime change, we are experiencing a batch much floods.  Do I consciousness there's an accrued risk? Yes."

In December 2023, aft consultations with residents,  the metropolis approved a program to excavation caller wells, regenerate a reservoir and pipes, and instal a chlorine disinfecting strategy to mitigate risks.   

For Trumbley, the outgo is harder to swallow than the water. 

"[We're] Canada's smallest incorporated city. You cognize a $5 cardinal project, for astir municipalities, is not that much.  When we lone person a taxation basal of nether a million, it's beauteous significant," helium said.

Greenwood received national and provincial infrastructure backing for the task but is inactive paying $1.5 million, which was covered by dipping heavy into fiscal reserves.

"What bugs me, I guess, is that erstwhile these types of things happen, it's conscionable announced, and past section governments are connected the hook for it,"  Trumbley said of the changing wellness standard.  

In a associated connection to CBC News, B.C.'s Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs defended the tougher h2o prime standards and pointed to a assortment of national and provincial programs to assistance municipalities facing infrastructure costs:

"[Standards were] developed aft extended consultation with communities and drinking h2o professionals crossed B.C. and is aligned with champion practices crossed Canada for assessing risks to groundwater, which whitethorn pass drinking h2o attraction needs to support nationalist health."

Canal Flats struggles for a solution

In Canal Flats, the outgo and necessity of the infrastructure upgrades measurement connected the mayor's mind. 

"If the authorities is going to commencement downloading much and much worldly similar they person been lately to the municipalities, they person to proviso the municipalities with a mode to woody with it, whether that beryllium money, whether that beryllium support, whether it beryllium bringing radical successful to bash it,"  Mark Dougherty said.

"But conscionable to download it connected smaller communities,  it's a hardship." 

Gayle Lake says Interior Health representatives are moving with the committee to look astatine options to trim contamination risk, taking a step-by-step attack earlier issuing immoderate ceremonial wellness orders.

But chlorination remains the preferred solution.

With unit to enactment building,  the prime betwixt nationalist health and public demands whitethorn travel down to politics.

"I bash person to marque definite that we're doing the champion for the assemblage itself," said Dougherty.

"And the presumption of the assemblage is we don't request to disinfect our h2o with chlorine."