Adverse Water Quality Incident Report

Location:
Unorganized Community of Redditt, approximately 25 kilometers north of Kenora District of Kenora

Incident Resolution:
Pending.
A Boil Water Advisory was issued in the 1970s by the Medical Officer of Health of the Northwestern Health Unit due to lack of treatment and presence of bacteria. The BWA was re-issued on May 26, 2000 and July 11, 2001 and remains in effect.

This non-municipal year-round residential drinking water system is required to install treatment by July 1, 2006 or seek an alternate source of potable water.

The BWA will remain in effect until the safety of the water supply can be assured, through water sampling and testing.

Type of water source:
Surface water, Armstrong Lake

Population served:
Total population served by the Redditt drinking water system is approximately 180 people or 37% of the community. The remainder of the community is on private water systems.

Water works owned/operated by:
Owned and operated by the Redditt Community Services Association. System Class: Non-municipal year-round residential.

Date MOE notified and by whom:
February 24, 2006, by laboratory

Date MOH notified and by whom:
February 24, 2006, by laboratory

Date of First Sample(s):
February 20, 2006

Who conducted the sampling?:
MOE

Why was sampling initiated?:
Samples collected during an inspection of the Redditt drinking water system

Sample contaminant details:
Total coliforms presence

Resampling details and results:
Resample collected on February 24, 2006 indicated presence of Total colifoms.

MOE Role:
The local Health Unit and Ministry staff will continue to work closely with the owners of the system to protect public health, and to ensure that a safe potable water supply is maintained for the users of this system.

Background (if there is a history of the site):
The gravity feed drinking water system does not treat the water.

The water supply, once owned by Canadian National (CN), was transferred to the Redditt Community Services Association on July 11, 2004.

The Redditt water system was last inspected on February 20, 2006. Several non-compliant issues were found with the most serious being lack of sampling.

Weekly bacteriological sampling , initiated on May 24, 2006, has shown the continuous presence of bacteria in the drinking water.