Vernon, BC, Canada / 1075 Beach Radio Vernon Duane Grandbois April 22, 2018 07:17 am
The Regional District of North Okanagan wishes to inform customers of Greater Vernon Water (GVW) that the Kalamalka Lake water source was turned off on Saturday due to increased turbidity in the water. The decision to remove the Kalamalka Lake water source was based on increased turbidity due to spring run-off caused by snow melt in the Coldstream Creek watershed. Water will be supplied from the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant (DCWTP) until turbidity decreases in Kalamalka Lake. Customers who are not normally on the DCWTP will notice that the water is much softer and the water has a low alkalinity and pH. This may be of interest to those customers who have in-home water treatment systems or aquariums.Staff will continue to monitor water quality, notify customers of any further changes and when the Kalamalka Lake water source is turned back on.
Showing posts with label Water quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water quality. Show all posts
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Sunday, July 09, 2017
IHA engaging on drinking water
ROGER KNOX MORNING STAR Fri Jul 7th, 2017 1:30pm LOCAL NEWS
It’s a lofty goal for Interior Health: provide clean, safe, reliable water for all people at all times, and be 100 per cent compliant with the guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Lofty, yes. Attainable, though? “There is this interesting understanding or belief system through most of the Interior Health region, but certainly in the Okanagan, that water is pristine; that the water around us is clean and fantastic,” said Dr. Trevor Corneil, IHA’s chief medical officer, addressing Greater Vernon Advisory Committee directors on his report: Drinking Water in Interior Health, released in January. “Well it is, but it’s not necessarily clean enough for drinking and that’s the problem.” As an example, Corneil talked about the discovery of arsenic in the water after the Mt. Polley mine disaster in the Cariboo a couple of years ago, and how the discovery was upsetting to the community. “There’s arsenic in all the water in lakes in B.C.,” he said. “The belief system is the water is pure, but that’s not the reality. The reality is water has limitations in terms of health, particularly when dealing with large populations, and we need to address that with all the tools we have in our tool box.” Corneil’s report looks at the progress of water purveyors in meeting provincial standards, and reviews health impacts from waterborne diseases, assesses the number of public notifications in relation to water system improvements and the implementation of a multiple-barrier approach to protecting public health.
Interior Health oversees more than 1,900 individual drinking water systems in its region, and Corneil said IH works collaboratively with its First Nations partners with respect to hundreds more. The IH team within its Drinking Water Program “works hard to understand the challenges and opportunities of each water system.”“Our biggest focus is around community engagement,” he said, referring to the up-and-running website drinkingwaterforeveryone.ca. “The website is an opportunity to begin a dialogue and educate those who need education on what clean water is from a health perspective. That’s a piece we haven’t done at the regional level and we are committed to moving forward with that.”
Corneil told GVAC directors there is support available in terms of funding capital improvements. “There are infrastructure funding grants and capital grants,” he said. “Interior Health’s role is to help provide you with what you need to put together your applications. The better the application,and the more criteria it meets with respect to the Canadian Drinking Water guidelines, the stronger letter of support we’re able to write in terms of funding. “Our job is really to help you as a committee address what grants are available to you and how you might look to fund what is full treatment, including filtration, of both your major sources (Duteau Creek and Kalamalka Lake) in the years to come.”
GVAC chairperson Juliette Cunningham said it’s encouraging for directors that discussions are happening about the recognition that the Regional District of North Okanagan need help in term of funding. “For us that’s been the biggest challenge,” said Cunningham. “It appears to me there is a willingness to work with us.”
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https://rdno.civicweb.net/document/75813
GREATER VERNON ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, July 6, 2017 Boardroom - 9848 Aberdeen Road, Coldstream, BC 9:00 a.m.
D. DELEGATIONS
1. Drinking Water in Interior Health - Report Presentation
Dr. Trevor Corneil, Chief Medical Health Officer, Interior Health Authority Gordon Moseley, Specialist Environmental Health Officer, Interior Health Authority
• PowerPoint Presentation Page 8 - 17
--------
G. NEW BUSINESS
1. Drinking Water in Interior Health
• Staff report dated June 21, 2017
RECOMMENDATION 3 Page 18 - 77
------------
Excerpts: (Click to enlarge)
It’s a lofty goal for Interior Health: provide clean, safe, reliable water for all people at all times, and be 100 per cent compliant with the guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Lofty, yes. Attainable, though? “There is this interesting understanding or belief system through most of the Interior Health region, but certainly in the Okanagan, that water is pristine; that the water around us is clean and fantastic,” said Dr. Trevor Corneil, IHA’s chief medical officer, addressing Greater Vernon Advisory Committee directors on his report: Drinking Water in Interior Health, released in January. “Well it is, but it’s not necessarily clean enough for drinking and that’s the problem.” As an example, Corneil talked about the discovery of arsenic in the water after the Mt. Polley mine disaster in the Cariboo a couple of years ago, and how the discovery was upsetting to the community. “There’s arsenic in all the water in lakes in B.C.,” he said. “The belief system is the water is pure, but that’s not the reality. The reality is water has limitations in terms of health, particularly when dealing with large populations, and we need to address that with all the tools we have in our tool box.” Corneil’s report looks at the progress of water purveyors in meeting provincial standards, and reviews health impacts from waterborne diseases, assesses the number of public notifications in relation to water system improvements and the implementation of a multiple-barrier approach to protecting public health.
Interior Health oversees more than 1,900 individual drinking water systems in its region, and Corneil said IH works collaboratively with its First Nations partners with respect to hundreds more. The IH team within its Drinking Water Program “works hard to understand the challenges and opportunities of each water system.”“Our biggest focus is around community engagement,” he said, referring to the up-and-running website drinkingwaterforeveryone.ca. “The website is an opportunity to begin a dialogue and educate those who need education on what clean water is from a health perspective. That’s a piece we haven’t done at the regional level and we are committed to moving forward with that.”
Corneil told GVAC directors there is support available in terms of funding capital improvements. “There are infrastructure funding grants and capital grants,” he said. “Interior Health’s role is to help provide you with what you need to put together your applications. The better the application,and the more criteria it meets with respect to the Canadian Drinking Water guidelines, the stronger letter of support we’re able to write in terms of funding. “Our job is really to help you as a committee address what grants are available to you and how you might look to fund what is full treatment, including filtration, of both your major sources (Duteau Creek and Kalamalka Lake) in the years to come.”
GVAC chairperson Juliette Cunningham said it’s encouraging for directors that discussions are happening about the recognition that the Regional District of North Okanagan need help in term of funding. “For us that’s been the biggest challenge,” said Cunningham. “It appears to me there is a willingness to work with us.”
-----------
https://rdno.civicweb.net/document/75813
GREATER VERNON ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, July 6, 2017 Boardroom - 9848 Aberdeen Road, Coldstream, BC 9:00 a.m.
D. DELEGATIONS
1. Drinking Water in Interior Health - Report Presentation
Dr. Trevor Corneil, Chief Medical Health Officer, Interior Health Authority Gordon Moseley, Specialist Environmental Health Officer, Interior Health Authority
• PowerPoint Presentation Page 8 - 17
--------
G. NEW BUSINESS
1. Drinking Water in Interior Health
• Staff report dated June 21, 2017
RECOMMENDATION 3 Page 18 - 77
------------
Excerpts: (Click to enlarge)
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Improvements on tap for Greater Vernon water
by Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Vernon posted Nov 23, 2016 at 6:00 AM
Attempts to improve water quality are going farther into Kalamalka Lake. Greater Vernon Water is in the process this week of extending the Westkal Road intake by 78 metres. “It was one of the recommendations in our watershed assessment,” said Renee Clark, water quality manager. Once the project is completed, the intake will be about 300 metres long. On top of this, the pipe will be raised from its current 0.6 metres off of the bottom of the lake to three metres. “This will help improve water quality by not pulling sediments off of the bottom of the lake during storms,” said Clark. A chlorine line has also been added, but it may never be used. “If invasive mussels show up, you do spurts of chlorine to keep them from attaching to the screens and clogging infrastructure,” said Clark. The budget for the project is $341,000, and it could possibly delay the need for filtration on the Kalamalka Lake source.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Engineers create water quality measuring tool
by Staff Writer - Vernon Morning Star posted Aug 24, 2016 at 1:00 AM
University of B.C. engineers have created a tool that will help communities measure water quality, as a way to ensure clean and safe drinking water is coming out of the taps. Nilufar Islam, who recently received her PhD from UBC Okanagan, has spent the better part of her career creating methods to improve drinking water quality. Working with Rehan Sadiq, associate dean of the School of Engineering, and Manuel Rodriguez, from Laval University, she developed a water quality index to improve the interpretation of drinking water quality in distribution networks. Disinfectants, commonly used in water to ensure it is safe to drink, can react with natural organic matters in the water, or the distribution system, to create disinfection byproducts (DBPs). These DBPs including trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids are known to have potential reproductive and development effects. It’s like a catch-22,” said Islam.
“Disinfection is necessary to ensure microbiological water quality, but it can produce DBPs when used excessively. DBPs in municipal water may potentially lead to detrimental health impacts. The question became, how can we make sure that our drinking water contains DBPs within acceptable limit without degrading microbiological water quality?” Noting it’s almost impossible for the general consumer to interpret complex regulatory violations, Islam and Sadiq created a tool, known as the non-compliance potential (NCP) index, to make interpreting measurements of diverse water quality parameters as easy as possible. The index has been used recently to study water distribution systems in many Canadian cities. The NCP index is designed to merge difficult to understand data into simple indicators that show municipalities whether their water systems are, or are likely to, contain unwanted byproducts that are created when disinfectants react with organic materials in water system. “As many small municipalities do not have the technical and financial resources to collect and decipher water quality data on a regular basis, tools such as the NCP index could help them target how and where they spend their time and money,” said Sadiq. In assessing the benefit of the NCP index, researchers measured water quality at various points in several water distribution systems. They then measured the systems to determine which areas had or were most likely to have compromised water quality. “With so many small municipalities required to operate and maintain water systems, we feel it is important to ensure they have the tools to understand how their systems are operating and where best to target their capital investments,” said Sadiq. “It wouldn’t be possible to examine the whole system at a time, so helping municipal engineers better prioritize operations is a good way to ensure our water quality is maintained.”
================
http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/water-trihalomethanes-eau/index-eng.php?page=text
Trihalomethanes
University of B.C. engineers have created a tool that will help communities measure water quality, as a way to ensure clean and safe drinking water is coming out of the taps. Nilufar Islam, who recently received her PhD from UBC Okanagan, has spent the better part of her career creating methods to improve drinking water quality. Working with Rehan Sadiq, associate dean of the School of Engineering, and Manuel Rodriguez, from Laval University, she developed a water quality index to improve the interpretation of drinking water quality in distribution networks. Disinfectants, commonly used in water to ensure it is safe to drink, can react with natural organic matters in the water, or the distribution system, to create disinfection byproducts (DBPs). These DBPs including trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids are known to have potential reproductive and development effects. It’s like a catch-22,” said Islam.
“Disinfection is necessary to ensure microbiological water quality, but it can produce DBPs when used excessively. DBPs in municipal water may potentially lead to detrimental health impacts. The question became, how can we make sure that our drinking water contains DBPs within acceptable limit without degrading microbiological water quality?” Noting it’s almost impossible for the general consumer to interpret complex regulatory violations, Islam and Sadiq created a tool, known as the non-compliance potential (NCP) index, to make interpreting measurements of diverse water quality parameters as easy as possible. The index has been used recently to study water distribution systems in many Canadian cities. The NCP index is designed to merge difficult to understand data into simple indicators that show municipalities whether their water systems are, or are likely to, contain unwanted byproducts that are created when disinfectants react with organic materials in water system. “As many small municipalities do not have the technical and financial resources to collect and decipher water quality data on a regular basis, tools such as the NCP index could help them target how and where they spend their time and money,” said Sadiq. In assessing the benefit of the NCP index, researchers measured water quality at various points in several water distribution systems. They then measured the systems to determine which areas had or were most likely to have compromised water quality. “With so many small municipalities required to operate and maintain water systems, we feel it is important to ensure they have the tools to understand how their systems are operating and where best to target their capital investments,” said Sadiq. “It wouldn’t be possible to examine the whole system at a time, so helping municipal engineers better prioritize operations is a good way to ensure our water quality is maintained.”
================
http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/water-trihalomethanes-eau/index-eng.php?page=text
Trihalomethanes
The maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) for trihalomethanes1 (THMs) in drinking water is 0.100 mg/L (100 µg/L) based on a locational running annual average of a minimum of quarterly samples taken at the point in the distribution system with the highest potential THM levels.
Bromodichloromethane
The maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) for bromodichloromethane (BDCM) in drinking water is 0.016 mg/L (16 µg/L) monitored at the point in the distribution system with the highest potential THM levels.
Other Considerations
Utilities should make every effort to maintain concentrations as low as reasonably achievable without compromising the effectiveness of disinfection.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Duteau Creek Filtration Studies Online at RDNO
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Results In For Coldstream Creek Study Posted on 12/21/2015 by Pete McIntyre
Posted on 12/21/2015 by Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM
The results are in from the first phase of a new study of Coldstream Creek. The creek, which originates on Silver Star Mountain, provides 80 percent of the surface water entering Kalamalka Lake, a key local water source, but is known for poor water quality at times of the year. Trina Koch from the Society for the Protection of Kalamalka Lake, says they took 142 samples at 55 locations along the creek in August and September (low water flow), which were sent to a firm to be analyzed. She says they found high levels of chloride and nitrates near a former dairy farm west of School Road in Lavington. "There is three culverts there that enter Coldstream Creek, and the culverts flow under Highway 6. They are intercepting spring water that is flowing underneath that old dairy form," Koch tells Kiss FM. Koch says the District of Coldstream is aware of the problem, and is looking to build a wetland to remedy it. A culvert at Brewer Road was also found to a significant point source of contaminants. Koch says the results showed the Coldstream Ranch was not causing water quality issues. "I know that they've worked hard to keep the creek clean, and Coldstream Ranch was not indicated as a problem in this study." Koch says they are recommending more riparian plantings along the creek, more storm water treatments, and encouraging hobby farms along the creek to limit horse access to the stream. Koch says the study looked at chlorides, nitrates, sulfates and electrical conductivity in the stream, focusing on those because they are indicative of human influence and water quality. "It's just a snapshot at this point, and you can't make broad conclusions," says Koch. Two more sets of samples, one during the high spring flow and another next summer, will finish off the study in 2016. Funding for the first phase came from a $20,000 grant fro the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
The results are in from the first phase of a new study of Coldstream Creek. The creek, which originates on Silver Star Mountain, provides 80 percent of the surface water entering Kalamalka Lake, a key local water source, but is known for poor water quality at times of the year. Trina Koch from the Society for the Protection of Kalamalka Lake, says they took 142 samples at 55 locations along the creek in August and September (low water flow), which were sent to a firm to be analyzed. She says they found high levels of chloride and nitrates near a former dairy farm west of School Road in Lavington. "There is three culverts there that enter Coldstream Creek, and the culverts flow under Highway 6. They are intercepting spring water that is flowing underneath that old dairy form," Koch tells Kiss FM. Koch says the District of Coldstream is aware of the problem, and is looking to build a wetland to remedy it. A culvert at Brewer Road was also found to a significant point source of contaminants. Koch says the results showed the Coldstream Ranch was not causing water quality issues. "I know that they've worked hard to keep the creek clean, and Coldstream Ranch was not indicated as a problem in this study." Koch says they are recommending more riparian plantings along the creek, more storm water treatments, and encouraging hobby farms along the creek to limit horse access to the stream. Koch says the study looked at chlorides, nitrates, sulfates and electrical conductivity in the stream, focusing on those because they are indicative of human influence and water quality. "It's just a snapshot at this point, and you can't make broad conclusions," says Koch. Two more sets of samples, one during the high spring flow and another next summer, will finish off the study in 2016. Funding for the first phase came from a $20,000 grant fro the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
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