Despite some non-compliance and best practices issues noted in recent inspection reports, the Drayton and Moorefield water systems are delivering safe drinking water, according to the township’s public works director.
“Is our drinking water safe?” Mayor Neil Driscoll asked director and acting CAO Brad McRoberts on Oct. 13 following a report on Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) annual inspections of the township’s water systems.
“Yes, our drinking water is safe,” replied McRoberts.
The question is one municipal council members are encouraged by provincial officials to regularly ask of water system operators.
The final inspection rating for the systems was 95.33% for Drayton and 100% for Moorefield.
The report, conducted on July 10 and Aug. 20, identified two non-compliance issues for the Drayton system. One involved continuous monitoring equipment not performing tests with at least the required minimum frequency. The other involved a flow recorder running out of ink, resulting in three days (two in December 2014 and one in February 2015) during which the equipment failed to record the required treated flow rates for almost the entire day.
In response to both concerns, the township is working with the system operators, the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) and R.J. Burnside and Associates to implement a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system as part of the 2015 capital budget.
The report also identified a “best practices” issue with the Moorefield system. The ministry notes the entries in the wellhouse logbook contain blank lines between daily entries.
“This is not an ideal practice as it can allow for the recording of information at a later date within the existing log entry,” the report states.
As a result, OCWA has amended its practices to include crossing out empty lines from logs “to avoid the potential for the back entry of information,” the report states.
