So we found out at the June 21, 2018 that our water superintendent has not kept up to date on the standards for our water supplier to issue boil water advisories to protect our health. This didn’t just happen in the last few months or even the last couple of years – this is from April 2013 – using the wrong figures for 5 years!
How many times in the last 5 years was the turbidity level >1 NTU and there was no boil water advisory issued? The Tree provides the option “Consider issuing a communication to the public if the water is noticeably turbid, but safe for human consumption”. This option was never used – why was this ignored?
The board voted on a motion to have the water superintendent provide them with a report explaining the use of the outdated figures for determining when a boil water notice is issued to protect the health of the community. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the Sept. UBID meeting to hear why our water superintendent hasn’t been using the proper standards for the last five years. This is a health issue – not to be ignored.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/turbidity-decision-tree.pdf
This is page 1 and page 4 from the above pdf:
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidity
In drinking water, the higher the turbidity level, the higher the risk that people may develop gastrointestinal diseases.[3] This is especially problematic for immunocompromised people, because contaminants like viruses or bacteria can become attached to the suspended solids. The suspended solids interfere with water disinfection with chlorine because the particles act as shields for the virus and bacteria. Similarly, suspended solids can protect bacteria from ultraviolet (UV) sterilization of water.[4]
Remember Walkerton, Ontario? 7 dead and nearly 2,300 people fall ill at some point from the water.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/inside-walkerton-canada-s-worst-ever-e-coli-contamination-1.887200
allthingsunionbay 
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