A map of unhappy people

While the PUC may not see a pattern as to where the complaints are coming from, they are acknowledging a spike in complaints since institution of a free chlorine system.

Included in their presentation to city council on Monday was documentation of complaint increases.

Immediately following a defeated motion by city council on April 2 to request a third-party survey regarding our drinking water, the PUC saw a rise in complaints to 27 per week over a two week period from April 2-16.

The complaints didn’t stop increasing at that point either and rose to an average of 47 per week from Apr. 16 to May 10.

The PUC was averaging approximately seven complaints a week prior to the council meeting on April 2.

"This is nothing new," said Dominic Parrella, vice-president operations and engineering. 

"We've always gotten complaints in relation to taste and odor concerns of local drinking water."

While that may be true, the PUC has undeniably seen a hike in complaints since switching to free chlorine.

For context, before the PUC was required by Ontario government regulations to make changes to the way in which they disinfected local water, they were only receiving a relatively small amount of complaints.

From January 2000 to May 2009, the PUC received 141 complaints related to taste and odor of local drinking water.

In the period following upgrades to city wells and just prior to the conversion to free chlorine complaints increased to 163 during the period of June 2009 to October 2011.

And they jumped even higher once the conversion was completed - 386 complaints were lodged from October 28 to December 31, 2011.

Where exactly the complaints are coming from is scattered throughout the city and Parrella said the PUC has not noticed a pattern in the calls.

GIS locations of the calls immediately following the switch to free chlorine is shown above.

As for what the PUC is doing to deal with concerns, Parrella said they have ramped up sampling to a monthly basis.

Previously, they sampled local drinking every three months for taste and odor concerns.

The increasing sampling is part of the PUC's Sentinel Monitoring program.

The Sentinel Monitoring program was created in September 2010 to establish a water quality database.

The program helps the PUC assess the adequacy and performance of the secondary disinfectant (combined chlorine), monitor for indicators of nitrification and assess changes in water quality in relation to customer concerns, treatment system changes and seasonal influences.

Sampling for the Sentinel Monitoring program is done at 16 locations across the city: St. Jerome Church, St. Gerard Majella Church, Bus Barn, Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, Mac's Mart Dacey Road, Bennett Blvd. Fire Hall, Catalyst Fitness, Holy Family School, East End Water Pollution Control Plant, Crimson Ridge, Bellevue Park Greenhouse, PUC Service Centre, Progressive Services on Sherbourne Ave., PUC Queen Street and PUC Peoples Rd.

The PUC tried to spread out testing locations across the zones in which they provide water – particularly when a water source is close by.

So far, the PUC has collected over 2,000 samples, completed over 6,000 analyses and say the results comply with Ontario drinking water standards.

The chlorophenol levels are below both the minimum detection limits set by the province and typical taste and odor threshold limits.

“Our drinking water meets all of the provincial standards,” said Parrella. “We’re also doing our best to ensure the chlorine levels are at a point where the taste and odor isn’t noticeable and we’re well within acceptable levels.”

Parrella admitted it’s difficult to satisfy everyone because different people have different sensitivities. 

More information is available on the PUC's website (www.ssmpuc.com) under their presentation to city council section.