Users in the Beaver Falls Waterworks District remain on a boil water advisory this week as do residents of Montrose.
Interior Health issued the Boil Water Notice on May 1 to the district, which was passed onto the village as some homes are currently being supplemented by the Beaver Falls system.
As a precaution all Montrose and Beaver Falls water users are advised to bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute and those with compromised immunity are reminded to take extra precautions when washing produce, making beverages and ice or when brushing teeth. The advisory also recommends using hand sanitizer after washing hands.
“It all stems from our Upper Reservoir Project,” explained the village’s Larry Plotnikoff. “Not all of our municipality is being fed through the Beaver Falls system, but to avoid any confusion, we are doing a blanket notice as a precaution until the notice is removed or until our project is completed, whichever comes first.”
Another community under an Interior Health water notification is Rivervale. Since Saturday, approximately 100 users of the Rivervale Improvement District have been under a water quality advisory due to higher than normal turbidity.
A water quality advisory recommends that children, seniors and people with compromised immune systems, drink boiled water or a safe alternative.
Goran Denkovski, regional manager of infrastructure and sustainability, says high turbidity results from the freshet which affects Rivervale users because tap water is surface water sourced from a creek.
Interior Health issues turbidity ratings following routine water tests. A reading of zero to one NTU (measured units of turbidity) is good, one to five NTU is “fair,” and anything greater than five NTU is “poor.” On May 5, Interior Health noted Rivervale’s water at 1.28 NTU.
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.
