Editor:
It is unfortunate that our city has “sold out” its formerly pristine water supply to an Alberta company that plans to chlorinate our water “because Fraser Health requires it.”
Why, when we will be charged higher fees for upgrading of the system, do we now need chlorine when we never did in the past?
Where was Fraser Health then?
Aside from one localized area in response to pigeon droppings, Fraser Health and Epcor have allowed us for years to have one of the cleanest pure water sources in the world. And now, with costly upgrades to the whole system, we suddenly need poison in our water?
Anyone can go online to read the toxic effects of this chemical.
Why can’t we use other methods like ultra-violet light and ozone as is done in Coquitlam? Chilliwack only uses chlorine at source when water testing demands it. Why can’t we do this?
It all sounds like “cover your ass” politics, and I say shame on our city council for selling us out.
Beverley Cunningham, White Rock
• • •
I write to comment on the issue of chlorination of White Rock water.
I am a water-supply consulting engineer, semi-retired. During my 50-year career, I worked in this field in eight provinces and in 18 other countries. My clients have varied from established engineering firms, to utilities such as City of Edmonton and international organizations such as the World Bank.
One of my clients was Epcor, for whom I undertook a major consultancy 15 years ago for Port Hardy water treatment, and some minor assignments since, the last about four years ago.
On the basis of that long-winded background, I proclaim that White Rock water should be chlorinated!
And that has nothing to do with Epcor; it is a current fiat of the Health Officer which is based – finally – on concern for the well-being of those folks who drink from White Rock taps.
Since I found out 25 years ago, when I moved to South Surrey, that White Rock water under the previous private utility, and subsequently with Epcor, was not chlorinated, I have been in a continual state of both astonishment and fear. What a chance the MOH was taking with people’s lives by not demanding chlorination for all those years.
White Rock is served by groundwater from an aquifer that spreads beyond its boundaries. Aquifers are recharged by surface water, so there is always a chance – in varying degrees – of microbial contamination. Take the Walkerton case; Seven people died and more than 2,000 were taken ill because the contaminated groundwater source was not chlorinated.
White Rockers should regard chlorination in the same way as stopping at a red light – annoying but safe!
David Poole, Surrey
