WHEREAS the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality GCDWQ are used by health authorities and other agencies to assess the safety of drinking water and to help determine treatment needs; AND WHEREAS all water suppliers using surface water must provide disinfection, and updates to the GCDWQ Guidelines call for dual treatment recommending that surface water must also be filtered; AND WHEREAS Interior Health has defined new water treatment objectives for water suppliers within its region using the 4-3-2-1-0 Drinking Water Objectives guideline to ensure the provision of microbiological safe drinking water, and these guidelines recommend filtration for water from all surface water sources and specific water quality parameters for each filtration approach: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities request the provincial government to implement a process whereby surface water systems with low health risks be risk-assessed and that the guidelines be modified to accommodate for the low risk to human health.
Ministry of Healthy Living Sport The Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality the Guidelines are published by Health Canada on behalf of the Federal-ProvincialTerritorial Committee on Drinking Water. The Province of British Columbia sits on Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee, and participates in approving the Canadian guidelines through the Committee on Health and Environment. The Canadian guidelines are consistent with the policy in the United States. The Guidelines give highest priority to the removal of viable microbiological contaminants such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses, and make recommendations for treatment of water to address these risks. While many groundwater sources may be considered low risk the same cannot be said for surface water. Even surface water from well protected watersheds is at risk from bacteria, viruses and protozoa from faeces of wildlife. The Canadian guidelines recommend a minimum of a four log reduction in viruses, three log reduction in, or inactivation of, protozoa such as cryptosporidium and giardia, and control of turbidity and zero coliform, and were developed with surface water in mind. Where risk assessment shows that a greater reduction of protozoa is required, the guidelines recommend a greater level of treatment than three log reduction. The Canadian guidelines have provisions for unfiltered water systems at low risk, and some health authorities have exemptions of filtration under some circumstances; in particular, the guidelines for unfiltered systems are two levels of disinfection, surface water is at low risk with very low turbidity, and a watershed protection plan is in place. The Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport MHLS is aware that implementing such treatment can be expensive, and are seeking to work with Ministry of Community and Rural Development to ensure infrastructure funding programs are prioritized to maximize benefit to impacted communities. MHLS is working with Interior Health, and other health authorities to ensure consistency in approaches to implementing treatment requirements.