The City of Corner Brook would like to address some concerns from the public regarding a water main break which took place over the holidays. On December 24th, a leak was detected affecting the addresses of 18 Park St, and 13 & 20 Commercial Street. In order to mitigate the risk of flooding in the area, the water flow was throttled back and work was slated for repair on December 27th. Every effort was made to contact property owners for these three addresses which were unsuccessful with the exception of one.
A repair was conducted on December 27th. The City of Corner Brook repairs many leaks throughout the year. Some require boil water advisories while others do not, in compliance with Provincial regulations guided by Service NL. This particular repair method would not normally have required one. The staff involved with such repairs are specially trained for such tasks.
On January 3rd, the City received an anonymous complaint expressing concern around the repair and some illnesses in the community. A boil water advisory was immediately issued until samples could be taken and tested. Business and property owners were contacted as soon as possible. We’re pleased to say these samples came up clear of any hazards, and the boil water advisory was lifted on January 6th: LINK.
Below are the answers you may have to some questions on the matter:
Q: Why was there a delay between the repair and issuing a boil water advisory?
A: As per the water main repair guideline from ServiceNL, no boil order advisory was required. The City employs numerous methods of sanitizing our water for consumption, and any boil water advisory is precautionary (see our previous note here for a summary: LINK). We take the cleanliness and safety of our water very seriously and when we received a complaint, a precautionary advisory was issued immediately on January 3rd until the samples could be tested.
Q: Is it possible the tests were clean because it was so long after the repair?
A: It is, however the City has other methods of monitoring the cleanliness of our water supply. Samples are taken and sent away for testing as an abundance of caution. The city conducts daily checks at both our water treatment plant and throughout the water distribution system. We have reviewed our records for the time period of December 27th through January 3rd and can conclude there is no indication that the safety of the water supply was compromised at any location during that time period, nor any time during the life of our Water Treatment Plant.
Q: How is the city certain the water is safe?
A: Through regular daily, weekly and quarterly testing (Third Party lab) at the water treatment plant and throughout the water distribution system. Also, the Department of Environment, Conservation & Climate, Environmental Health officer carries out regular spot testing throughout the water distribution system.
Q: How does the city account for any illnesses?
A: We can only account for the safety of our water. Any individuals who feel ill should seek medical attention.
The safety of drinking water for our City is of utmost importance, we have a highly trained and certified team to operate the treatment plant and ensure safe drinking water is distributed throughout our entire City. We appreciate if the correlation of a water break and repair and ilnesses in the community caused any alarm, and want to reassure the public that a thorough investigation took place as a result of these concerns.
We are proud of our world class water treatment system and would invite the public to join us this coming Municipal Awareness Week for a tour in May!
