Shaun Mackie A/Regional Environmental Health Manager

1. Shaun MackieA/Regional Environmental Health Manager First Nations Water Symposium Addressing Water Quality in First Nations

2. What is “Quality” Water?CleanSafe Reliable

3. Drinking Water Testing • You cannot tell if water is safe by: • Looking • Smelling • Tasting • The only way to reliably trust water is to test.

4. Ongoing Sampling/Testing to Meet Guidelines • Turbidity • Chlorine Residual • Microbiological

5. Drinking Water Guidelines • Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality • Ontario Regulation 170/03

6. “What is Done if the Drinking Water Results Fail to Meet the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality?” • If the water is not safe, an advisory is recommended

7. Drinking Water Advisories • Boil Water Advisory • Boil Water Order – MOH • Do Not Consume • Do Not Use

8. Communication of a Drinking Water Advisory • EHO makes immediate contact with community to recommend advisory. • EHO follows up with written report.

9. Boil Advisories in Ontario • Currently 31 First Nations have a boil advisory in place. • (As of March 5, 2010)

10. Current Ontario Advisory Breakdown • Inadequate Disinfection or Residuals 40.2% • Equipment Malfunction 27.2% • Unacceptable Microbiological Quality 12% • Unacceptable Turbidity 9.8% • Deterioration in Source Water Quality 7.6% • Operation Would Compromise Public Health 3.2% • Epidemiological Evidence of Disease Outbreak 0% • ------- • 100%

11. WaterTrax • Online database for water quality data. • Labs automatically upload results into WaterTrax. • Communities can also enter Colilert testing results. • Boil Advisory reports are generated weekly.

12. Advisory Effectiveness • 100%

13. Thank you • Shaun Mackie • A/Regional Environmental Health Manager • Brantford, ON • 519-751-6447 • Shaun.Mackie@hc-sc.gc.ca