With changes in organic levels in Moose Lake and an aging water treatment plant, Town council is looking for other options to supply the Town with quality, safe drinking water.
Moose Lake, the Town's raw water source, is currently under two Alberta Health Services (AHS) advisories, one for blue-green algae and another for fecal coliform. As a result of these advisories, AHS is recommending people stay out of the lake and do not drink straight from it, though treated water is still safe to consume.
Town council held a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss growing concerns on the quality of Moose Lake as raw water for the Town of Bonnyville and also the status of the aging water treatment plant. MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw was also present.
Because of the higher level of organic material in the lake the treatment plant is dealing with, staff has been forced to add higher levels of chlorine disinfectant to the water, explained Town coun. Gene Sobolewski.
“When you have higher organic loading, our water treatment plant is going to have some issues, some difficulty removing all of the organics,” said Sobolewski, explaining more chlorine was used as a result. “The reason I have issues with it is because when chlorine reacts with organics, it produces some nasty side effects, some nasty chemicals.”
One of these side effects, trihalomethanes (THMs), is of particular concern because, as coun. Jim Cheverie explained, it can cause liver cancer. He explained THMs were a big issue about ten years ago, when guidelines limiting the amount of THMs in drinking water were released in the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.
Though Bonnyville's water tests always come back well below the federal limits on THMs, Cheverie was concerned because testing for THMs is done quarterly.
Lyndon Lay, director of public works for the Town, explained the tests were carried out in March, June, September and the end of December.
“Right now, when we're having increased levels of organics…you have to, I would assume, increase your levels of chlorine gas,” said Cheverie. “If those increase, the THM levels for the month of July should increase. We're not going to have any record of that.
“If you're doing your THM testing quarterly, you did it in…June, you're not going to do it again until September, what does it say about the month of July?”
Lay explained the department had contacted Alberta Environment and they recommended extra testing which the department is in the process of setting up.
CAO Mark Power agreed with the need for more testing, however, he also cautioned against assuming they will come back showing dangerous levels of THMs or any other chemical.
“I don't want to scare everybody because we don't know whether we're above or below the trihalmethane guidelines…I don't want to alarm the public.”
It was decided to begin testing the water monthly to ensure levels are still below the guidelines throughout the summer months.
The water treatment facility itself was a source of concern as well.
Sobolewski said the water treatment plant is 29 years old and they are typically designed to last 25 years before they need significant upgrades.
The plant itself is aged to the point of many of its parts no longer being manufactured, Lay added, saying last year a transmission pump went down and there were no replacement parts available.
Had the other pump gone down at the same time, “we'd be in dire straights,” he said.
Currently, to deal with the higher levels of organics in the water, the treatment process has been slowed down, which is costing the Town in terms of overtime and staff, Lay added.
“Essentially, we've got a questionable raw water source and we've got a water treatment plant that's reached end of life…
We've got to start doing something,” said Sobolewski.
Council discussed options for the future of Bonnyville's water, ranging from upgrading the current facility to finding a new water source, both of which have inherent problems.
Power explained how a study on the water treatment plant was completed in 2006 and hasn't been redone since because costs are prohibitive. The information gathered in that study is now redundant and it will have to be redone.
“Alberta Environment has said Moose Lake is not a sustainable long term supply of water,” Power said of that report. “They will not support Moose Lake as a long term sustainable supply of water for the Town of Bonnyville. We didn't spend a whole bunch of money to do a study on the water treatment plant with Moose Lake as the supplied water.”
He said Alberta Environment supported the Town of Bonnyville receiving treated water from Cold Lake.
“We were going to get treated water from Cold Lake,” he said. “When they basically threw that back in our faces, we attempted to get raw water from Cold Lake as a sustainable supply…Both upgrades to the water treatment facility are completely different and come with different costs. I'm not sure what direction we should be going in.
“Do we pursue (Cold Lake) or do we pursue Moose Lake knowing that Alberta Environment doesn't support Moose Lake?”
Sobolewski reached out to Leskiw, saying, “You're going to be instrumental trying to guide us through the process and helping us…because we're going to be facing desperation in the next couple of years.”
Leskiw suggested council complete monthly testing on the water at Moose Lake, provide a history of council's dealings with Alberta Environment as well as the state of the Cold Lake waterline that didn't happen and information about the aging conditions at the water treatment plant.
With that information, she said, she can then go to the minister of environment and ask for direction on what direction Bonnyville should be taking.
According to Lay, the future of the treatment plant is grim if these issues aren't dealt with.
“We're producing water that meets Alberta Environment requirements with that plant,” he said. “If the source water changes much more, which I'm assuming its doing with all these advisories…I don't know how long that plant is going to be capable of doing it.”
“It's water quality,” said Sobolewski. “It's our residents that we have to look out for…We know we're already at an end point, let's start moving forward, let's start working at getting this issue resolved, whether it's a water source, whether it's a water treatment plant…Stop studying, let's get fixing.”
