Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 28, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 CROSSTOWN CIVIC CREDIT UNION www. crosstowncivic. mb. ca Rates subject to change without notice. Call for details. MORTGAGES AS LOW AS 2.49 % OAC cr os st ow Rate MO O S S They saved for moments like this. Invest for tomorrow, today. assiniboine. mb. ca Airport sees more passengers / B6 CITY & BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204- 697- 7292 I CITY. DESK@ FREEPRESS. MB. CA I WINNIPEGFREEPRESS. COM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 B 1 HARVEY Osiowy and his Laxdal Road neighbours thought they had their fill of city water problems last winter. Now their cups overfloweth once again - not with water, but with more water problems. The beleaguered residents of that Charleswood community were boiling their water Tuesday night, along with the rest of the city. " I don't even know what to say. Now I've got to start hauling in more water. D�ja vu, how's that?" said Osiowy, whose wife is battling cancer. " This last year has been hell. This is just another thing in our lives to handle. But I'm glad that the mayor pushed it for the whole city. That's impressive." Last winter, from Dec. 29, 2013 to Jan. 5, 2014, after a water- main break flooded the street, ditches and several driveways, Osiowy and others in the area were without water intermittently as several more breaks occurred. Residents stockpiled drinking water and obtained some from city- supplied water trucks parked in the neighbourhood, but were forced to bathe at others' homes or at workplaces. Within 30 minutes of the city issuing the advisory Tuesday evening, several shoppers at the Sobeys on Keewatin Street had filled their carts with bottled water. As the evening wore on, some retail outlets ran out of bottled water. " I suspect it will all be over tomorrow, but who knows? I find it incredulous that we should have that kind of thing happen. But nothing surprises me anymore," said Jim Watling. Kevin Tetu bought nine litres and 48 500- millilitre bottles at Sobeys, but said he didn't expect the advisory to last very long. " It will clean them right out. Unless they've got a bunch of pallets hidden in the back," Tetu said. He said a store employee told him there were 100 cases of 24 500- ml bottles before the run started, but 30 minutes later, there were about 10 left. Marleen Pollok filled two jugs and bought four cases of bottled water to supply five children aged five to 23. " I have little guys that want to take a bath every day. And I'm scared to put them in a bath. I don't want them to get sick. That's what I'm worried about, the safety," she said. Sammy Mittelstadt, president of World of Water International Ltd. based in Winnipeg, said Winnipeggers were able to purchase bottled water at most of the city's 10 World of Water locations, which reopened Tuesday night after the city- wide boil- water advisory was issued. " We've never been in a situation where the whole city has been on a boil- water alert. We had it, I think two summers ago, in the south side of the city. We were fortunate that it ended pretty quick, but in that 24 hours I remember the phones were ringing off the hook and the stores were lined up with people," Mittelstadt said. " This is completely different. We've got to take care of our existing customers and then try to help out as many people as we can. We've got contracts with a lot of major corporations and the hospitals, so we'll be looking after them." CrossFit 204 owner/ coach Mike Warkentin posted a notice on the website for his gym, known as a CrossFit box, advising clients to " please bring bottled water or boiled water from home. Do not drink the water at the gym. We are trying to find bottled water, but have not been able to do so as yet, so please come prepared with safe drinking water." Brian O'Leary, the chairman of the Metro Winnipeg Superintendents, told the Free Press there will be no city school closures today. " All Winnipeg schools will open tomorrow, but with the water advisory issued by the City of Winnipeg, we are asking parents to send bottled or boiled water with their children," said O'Leary, who is also the Seven Oaks School Division superintendent. ashley. prest@ freepress. mb. ca randy. turner@ freepress. mb. ca W INNIPEG remains under a precautionary boilwater advisory after 15 per cent of the city's water samples tested positive for coliform bacteria. On Tuesday afternoon, low counts of coliform bacteria - including E. coli - were found in six out of 39 water samples collected Monday. Testing of the water, which usually takes 16 to 24 hours, yielded coliform counts ranging from one to nine units per 100 millilitres of water. The acceptable coliform count for drinking water is zero. Five out of six positive samples were collected east of the Red River. A sixth was collected in southwest Winnipeg. As a result, the province's medical officer of health and the drinking- water office of Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship issued a precautionary boil- water advisory for areas of Winnipeg east of the Red Tuesday at 5: 30 p. m. At about 5: 45 p. m., Mayor Brian Bowman extended the advisory to the entire city due to what he described as " an abundance of caution." Although Winnipeg's water and waste department is confident the coliform bacteria counts are the result of a sampling error, Bowman said city engineers could not provide him with assurances water west of the Red River is safe to drink in the event the initial test results are borne out by a second round of drinking- water samples collected Tuesday. " We couldn't be given a 100 per cent assurance," Bowman said at city hall early Tuesday evening. " This is a connected water system. The water flows between west and east." The city is expediting the testing of additional water samples and hopes to see the results by this afternoon, said Geoff Patton, acting director of Winnipeg's water and waste department. " We're confident in the safety of our water, and we're resampling to prove this out. But what we have in front of us is testing samples that show this low level of bacteria," Patton said. " We decided to issue this precautionary boilwater order to the whole city of Winnipeg until further sampling can prove the bacteria is not an issue, and it was more than likely a sampling error in our procedures." Winnipeg is served by a five- year- old, $ 300- million water- treatment plant located at Deacon Reservoir, east of the Red River Floodway. It uses a series of treatment processes - coagulation, flocculation, ozonation, filtration, chlorine disinfection and ultraviolet radiation - to eliminate viruses, bacteria and protozoa from the city's drinking water, which is supposed to be more pristine than bottled water. Patton said he believes the presence of coliform bacteria in six water samples is a result of sampling errors. " There is an abundance of chlorine at these locations. Chlorine and the presence of bacteria do not go together," he said. " We see clean results upstream and downstream of these locations, and then we see these unusual samples. So what has happened?" He said a number of things can go wrong with sampling to yield what lab technicians call " false positives," or erroneous reports of biological contamination. Tuesday's city- wide boil- water advisory is the first in Winnipeg in recent memory. Water- borne illnesses such as typhoid were common in the city prior to the 1919 completion of the Winnipeg Aqueduct, which carries water from Indian Bay on Shoal Lake, near the Manitoba- Ontario border, to Deacon Reservoir. In 2013, approximately 1.3 million Montrealers were told to boil water after the city adjusted levels on a reservoir, causing sediment to flood part of that city's drinking- water system. Issuing a precautionary boil- water advisory for an entire city is a tough call, said Tom Pearson, a retired city water engineer. " On one hand, the risk is fairly low; but the risk to the young, the old and the immune- compromised could be serious," he said. " The economic fallout for businesses, hospitals and on and on is significant. And the very act of boiling water can result in scald risks for the elderly and others in weakened/ marginalized situations." bartley. kives@ freepress. mb. ca What to do during a boil- water advisory . Preparing food and beverages: Use boiled or bottled water to drink, wash fruits and vegetables, prepare beverages and wash food- prep surfaces. Use ice made with boiled or bottled water. . Preparing baby formula: Prepare baby formula from powder or concentrate with boiled or bottled water, or use readyto- use baby formula. Wash and sterilize bottles and nipples before use. If you can't sterilize bottles, try to use singleserve, ready- to- feed bottles. . To boil water: Fill a pot with water from the cold- water tap. Heat it until bubbles come from the bottom of the pot to the top. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute ( kettles with an automatic shutoff feature may not boil for a full minute). . Boiling- water safety: After boiling, turn off the heat source and let the water cool. Pour the water into a clean container with a cover. Avoid burning injuries from hot water, keep children away from it and place kettles and pots away from the counter and stove edges when in use. . Water filters: Most kitchen and other household filters typically do not remove bacteria or viruses. Boil tap water even if it's filtered. . Washing hands: You can use tap water for washing hands. Rub all parts of the hand with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. . Brushing teeth: Use boiled water that has cooled or bottled water to brush teeth or clean dentures or retainers. . Bathing and showering: Adults and children able to avoid swallowing water can wash, bathe or shower using tap water. Young children should be sponge bathed, using water that has been boiled and cooled to a safe temperature. If boiling is not feasible, use bottled water. . Other household water uses: There's no need to boil tap water for laundry, washing dishes or flushing toilets. . Pets: Give them boiled water that has been cooled, or bottled water. - source: City of Winnipeg Boil water first, city advises Samples test positive for coliform bacteria By Bartley Kives Shoppers stock up on water By Ashley Prest and Randy Turner PHOTOS BY JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sammy Mittelstadt, president of World of Water, readies for customers after the city issued a boil- water advisory on Tuesday. Kevin Tetu stocks up on bottled water Tuesday. B_ 01_ Jan- 28- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B1 1/ 27/ 15 10: 57: 47 PM ;