PUC responds to letter, 'Would you bathe your children in brown water?'

SooToday.com received the following letter from PUC Services Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Dominic Parrella in response to a letter published yesterday from  faithful reader and fed up PUC customer, Skye Burke.

Her letter, called 'Would you bathe your children in brown water?' can be read here

Parrella also forwarded the letter below to members of City Council, Mrs. Burke, and the Algoma Public Health Unit.

You may have heard by now that the brown water you experienced last Wednesday evening was the result of the failure of a private hydrant on the Algoma University property.  

While we do not yet know the cause, it appears the 6” diameter watermain supply to the hydrant failed, resulting in a sudden, uncontrolled, and very large discharge of water for about an hour before PUC was notified, arrived on site, and were able to stop the flow. (i.e. Someone noticed the leaking water, called the Fire Dept. who attended the site and who then called the PUC) 

This large and sudden release of water reversed flow patterns in the distribution system over a large area in the east end of the city.

That is what stirred up the pre-existing deposits in the watermains that have accumulated over many years due to internal corrosion of the cast iron pipes all across the city.

I would like to assure you our drinking water is and always has been safe for consumption (and I am not suggesting anyone should consume brown water!)  

I can advise that such brown water has been tested in the past and confirmed the absence of any harmful bacteria. 

Furthermore, I can advise that our water meets or exceeds all Ontario drinking water standards, except for lead in a small number of homes in the city (more on this below).  

With respect to any health related concerns that you may have, we are not qualified to speak to such issues and I would therefore ask that you contact Algoma Public Health.

Please note that we are currently in the final stages of a comprehensive study to address the taste and odour concerns (including brown water issues) related to the city's drinking water. 

The study encompasses the past two years of field data collected. 

We originally anticipated concluding the study and reporting  publicly on the outcome by late fall this year, but that is now expected by March 2014.  

We have two very reputable engineering firms conducting this study, Kresin Engineering and Stantec Engineering. 

Also, we have established a Steering Committee comprised of members of the public, Algoma Public Health and Ministry of Environment officials  to provide public input and oversight related to development of the final outcome that will serve to correct the problems identified.

In relation to taste and odour or discolouration, the situation with our drinking water really is a very complicated issue and cannot be easily explained without getting into a lot of detail.  

We changed the way the city’s drinking water is disinfected in order to satisfy regulatory requirements. 

The Province continues to make more and more prescriptive laws following the Walkertown tragedy in 2000. 

We must comply with provincial regulations which require us to use some form of chlorine to treat drinking water. 

When the latest regulation dealing with lead came into effect (starting in 2007), we had to develop a plan to reduce lead in the water. 

We had two choices; either add more chemicals to alter the chemistry of the water and thereby reduce the amount of lead leaching from pipes into the water; or stop using ammonia and switch to free chlorine. 

We chose the second option because we believe that people would rather have fewer chemicals in their drinking water than more chemicals. 

So, on October 27, 2011 we stopped injecting ammonia into the city’s drinking water and continued only with the chlorine – the same chlorine that we have been using for at least the past 50 years. 

While there have been very few cases of municipal systems switching from Chloramine (i.e.  Chlorine combined with Ammonia - the “old” method) to Free Chlorine (i.e. Chlorine alone), all the available data indicated that within a relatively short time, most people would not notice the difference. 

However it was not possible to conclusively identify how long it would take for the system to stabilise. 

The fact is that some people will always detect the chlorine. 

But please keep in mind that we now use 30% less chlorine than we did before the switch and we have completely eliminated the addition of approximately 16 tonnes per year of ammonia to the water. 

As a result we have eliminated about 5.3 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year from the environment. 

Since changing to free chlorine, it appears the scale and sediment are more mobile, i.e. more easily dislodged. 

That's a good thing in the long run because it will make it easier and more effective to flush out the sediments through our Uni-Directional Flushing program. 

The drawback is that we will continue to experience more frequent brown water episodes, until we complete enough UDF passes through the whole system to have lasting results.  That will take several years to complete.

We acknowledge that concerns about objectionable taste and odour are real and persistent among some consumers. 

We are committed to improving this situation as much as possible. 

That is the main reason why we instituted the practice of Uni-Directional Flushing and spent the summer and fall of 2012, flushing the east end of the city. 

Furthermore, we redid the east end again this year in addition to concurrently doing the west end. 

This process cleans out loose scale and sediment that has been building up in the pipes over many years and is recognised as one of the most effective methods of improving water quality, for both taste/odour and colour. 

We have received comments from customers that their water improved (i.e. the chlorine was no longer noticeable) after the pipes in their area were flushed. 

But, since the entire water supply across the city is all interconnected, and it will take at least three years to flush the entire city once, we may not see the ultimate benefit of Uni-Directional Flushing for several more years. 

Uni-Directional Flushing will be a key part of PUC ongoing maintenance work every year for the foreseeable future.

We also instituted augmented sampling at residences that have continued to experience significant taste and odour problems. 

This sampling included testing for a range of known compounds that impact taste and odour at detection levels up to 10 times greater than normal lab methods typically used in the province.

The results of this augmented sampling will be incorporated into the overall assessment by our consultants of the effectiveness of free chlorine to control lead and will be factored into their recommendations related to improving taste, odour, and colour that will come from their final report.

You may wish to visit the PUC website ( www.ssmpuc.com ) where you can find a copy of presentations we made to City Council on May 14, 2012 to update Council and the public. 

The document titled “PRESENTATION TO CITY COUNCIL - MAY 14, 2012: WATER QUALITY”  is available at this link

The PUC presentation, along with those of Kresin Engineering and Stantec, provide a lot of information on this issue that you may find helpful. 

You can also find the results of the Ipsos Reid survey conducted in late November 2012 at this web page. 

I hope this helps address your concerns. 

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions. 

Thank you,