Shady Acres Trailer Court under a water quality advisory

CHARLIE LAKE, B.C. – Northern Health says Shady Acres Trailer Court remains under a water quality advisory, however, there are no longer bacterial contamination concerns.

On April 29th, a sample result came back showing some bacterial contamination concerns, so a boil water notice was put in place by Northern Health.

The issue was apparently due to the attachment on the tap from where the sample was taken, and as a precaution, the system was disinfected, and more sample results were taken.

According to Eryn Collins, with Northern Health, over a 48-hour period, they further assessed the concerns and discovered elevated manganese levels in the drinking water, and that boiling the water would actually exacerbate that problem, so that advisory was changed to a do not consume advisory.

Collins says there are elevated levels of manganese in the water in a variety of areas in the north, as it is a naturally occurring element in water and food that we do need to some extent.

The problem lies with new research showing that there are potential health effects from long-term exposure to high levels of manganese in drinking water, Collins explained.

Health Canada set a maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) for manganese in drinking water, so it’s not the water that has changed, says Collins, it’s the maximum acceptable concentration that has.

When water exceeds the MAC, according to Collins, people should use another source of water, such as bottled water, for infants and young children, especially when using baby formula, that already has manganese in it.

The updated advisory is “purely due to the elevated levels of manganese in the water” says Collins.

“All of the residents in the park have been notified of the change to a water quality advisory and provided information as to manganese in the water and what the potential risks of that are and what steps they can take to protect themselves,” she explained.

“Going forward, there’ll be a number of steps that will happen, including additional sampling to determine the levels of manganese in the system.”

Collins says that there will be an assessment done and a proposal for treatment to reduce the levels of manganese.

“Then that treatment proposal would come to Northern Health and eventually some sort of treatment system would be put in place, but those things take time.”

There are corrective actions that are required to be done, and actions that the owners of Shady Acres and the water systems have been advised to take in the meantime.

“In this particular instance, the water system operator has decided that they are going to continue to supply a supply of bottled water for residents with infants or small children.”