Water Quality News

This section will be updated regularly with current news regarding drinking water, water quality, water tests and bottled water including articles from local newspapers and magazines regarding drinking water information, concerns and recommendations.
Text Box: Water-quality report should be in public light Calgary Herald Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 Nervous government bureaucrats sitting on a 2004 evaluation of Alberta's water-treatment plants hope skeptical citizens will be satisfied to learn, "We didn't find any Walkertons out there." That's not nearly good enough. One would hope the bar is higher than it was in an Ontario community where seven people died after drinking contaminated water. It's not a convincing response, when a Carmangay treatment-plant operator has just been sentenced to three months house arrest for fudging water-quality records. One wonders quite what the report had to say about Carmangay in 2004 -- or other towns, for that matter. There is reason for optimism. The Pembina Institute, hardly an apologist for the provincial government, says Alberta's overall surface water quality has improved significantly over the past 30 years, the effect of tougher pollution controls for both industry and municipal sewage plants. Still, as Carmangay suggests (and Bragg Creek's ongoing boil-water advisory confirms), this benefit is not uniformly distributed. No doubt, the government's reluctance to publish has to do with the $1.2 billion the president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties claims must be spent on water infrastructure. When so much else has been promised, it's an embarrassment to have such a basic need highlighted -- like finding one's roof needs repair, after one has spent the cash on a big-screen TV. The situation speaks to this government's post-debt lack of plan, of which we have complained before. The time is ripe to review all capital spending, planned and requested, to ensure A-list priorities are attended to before those on the B-list. Meanwhile, the politicians have had this report to themselves for long enough. Albertans have paid for it; those who are interested should be able to see it. Regional water lines urged Infrastructure minister seeks cash to replace outdated plants Renata D'Aliesio, Calgary Herald Published: Friday, February 17, 2006 Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg is looking for a chunk of this year's budget to change the way many Albertans receive their drinking water. The time has come, Oberg said, to replace a patchwork of small water treatment plants with regional pipelines connecting cities such as Calgary and Lethbridge to neighbouring communities. "We have to have a safe, secure supply of drinking water," Oberg said Thursday. "It's going to cost quite a lot of dollars. It all depends on how many systems we're going to do, and we haven't established that at all yet." Building regional pipelines is one of several recommendations in a yet to be released report of the province's first-ever look at the state of Alberta's drinking water. Provincial environment officials examined 535 water treatment systems across the province. Problems and suggested solutions were outlined in a report in 2004, Pat Lang, acting director of the province's drinking water branch, told the Herald on Wednesday. The report has been in the hands of several ministries, but never released publicly. Alberta Environment spokesman Robert Moyles said Thursday the province's findings will be unveiled shortly. "This provides a road map for where we would go in the future," Moyles said. "What we had hoped to do as well . . . was indicate how we were going to take the first step." That first step should have been releasing the findings long ago, said MLA Harry Chase, the Liberals' infrastructure critic. "Transparency is absolutely critical," Chase said. "What is in that report to hide? What is the significance of delaying that report? "People need to have confidence in their most basic services -- water, electricity." Moyles said the government isn't hiding the report. "We have worked with municipalities over the last year and a half to make sure they're aware of what insight the report provides." The report's recommendations call for the government to invest hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years to upgrade water treatment plants, boost monitoring and build regional pipelines. Many plants in small communities are out of date, requiring significant upgrades to meet new Alberta Environment standards. Even when the standards are met, communities are having a tough time finding and keeping water operators. The government hasn't entered into any major building of regional water systems since the 1980s, Lang said. A pipeline in Edmonton delivers treated water to about 40 neighbouring communities. The system is manned by staff and computers in Edmonton, reducing the number of operators required. It's a model Oberg would like to repeat in other parts of Alberta. He said improving drinking water infrastructure is his top priority this year. "What I'm attempting to do is ensure that as many regional supplies as possible come on tap," he said. The number of pipelines will hinge on the money available in the coming provincial budget. The current funding formula, requiring small communities to cover a quarter of the cost, is too financially onerous, said Don Johnson, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. He has proposed to Oberg that the government pick up 95 per cent of the tab. That's highly unlikely, Oberg said, but he agreed the province needs to take on more of the cost if it wants regional water systems to take shape. "We have to make it attractive enough for the municipalities to join in," he said.

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