A dozen households on Colonization Road West should find out Monday if the boil water advisory issued to them Wednesday will be lifted.
Residents in that area received notices Tuesday that their water service would be temporarily shut off at 8 a.m. on Wednesday to allow Public Works crews to repair a water break.
The shut-off lasted about four hours as the repairs were completed.
But they also received a boil water advisory from the town, issued “as a precautionary measure due to the repairs on the water distribution system, which may have allowed the possibility of the water distribution system to become contaminated.”
The advisory does not mean that the water is contaminated, but rather that it could be, the notice stated. Whenever water quality is unknown, residents should assume it is unsafe to drink and boil it beforehand.
Environmental and Facilities superintendent Doug Herr said Friday morning that water samples were taken near the break site and sent to Enviro-test in Thunder Bay for analysis Wednesday.
Herr noted the testing usually takes three working days and since the third days falls on a weekend, the results won’t come back until Monday.
He added that under more stringent water regulations of the new Clean Water Act, the town must be extra cautious.
“It’s just precautionary. You have to inform them if there’s any possibility of contamination,” said Herr. “Every time we repair a water break, we’ll be putting those out.
“More residents will be seeing them in the future.”
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
