Niagara-on-the-Lake's drinking water has been given perfect grades, according to the province, as reported by staff at Tuesday’s committee-of-the-whole general meeting.
There are two systems serving the town – one flowing to a much larger percentage of residents than the other.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake water distribution system is classified as a large municipal residential system, both inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Parks, and Conservation.
The Region of Niagara, at its DeCew Falls and Niagara Falls water treatment plants, produces treated water for the town’s distribution systems. The treated water is carried by a series of transmission mains to the town before it’s distributed to about 7,500 customers in Niagara-on-the-Lake through about 201 kms of town-owned distribution mains.
The Bevan Heights distribution system serves about 80 customers and water is received from the City of Niagara Falls, councillors were told Tuesday.
Before questions were later tabled about the removal of a specific contaminant, Coun. Sandra O’Connor praised staff for their work, noting that the ministry’s inspections of both systems that occurred last year identified no non-compliances and were given 100-per-cent inspection ratings.
She also said more than 1,500 metres of watermain was replaced last year, at a cost of nearly $1.3 million.
“I just want people to know we are investing in our infrastructure,” said O’Connor who was also pleased to read that the town is making efforts in detecting leaks in the systems.
“This is going to save us money in the long term,” she said.
In response to the Walkerton tragedy, the province enacted legislation and regulations for drinking water more than 20 years ago in order to ensure safe drinking water – the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Materials such as organics, as well as chemicals used to treat the water are successfully removed – but one piece of household waste that residents are urged not to dispose of through their sinks and toilets is pharmaceuticals, which was raised in the discussion by Coun. Wendy Cheropita.
In response to her questions, acting operations manager Darren MacKenzie said they aren’t entirely.
“The technology is not there to remove all of it – as of yet,” said MacKenzie, also noting that water is treated and supplied by Niagara Region and only received by the town’s systems.
MacKenzie said people should dispose of unused pharmaceuticals at a local pharmacy.
Cheropita also said “there has been some progress” in work to alleviate water loss and asked MacKenzie if he could provide data on the improvements made recently, to which he said staff are currently working on numbers that can be shared.