While the large group of bacteria is ‘Total Coliforms’ are not expected to cause illness, said the associate medical officer of health, the presence of the bacteria could point to other issues, so PHSD issued the advisory as a precaution
A group of bacteria considered “largely harmless to humans” spurred Sudbury’s boil water advisory, in place since late afternoon May 6, said Dr. Emily Groot, associate medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury and District (PHSD).
“The adverse result that we received indicated that we’re positive for what’s called total coliforms,” she told Sudbury.com the morning of May 7. A large category of different types of bacteria, Groot said the health unit doesn’t “anticipate any health effects from this.”
However, the bacteria’s presence could point to other issues, Groot said.
“From a health perspective, we want everyone to take precautions with respect to the water,” she said. “Although these coliforms are generally not dangerous, they suggest that there’s something going on with our water system that we need to understand better to ensure that it’s safe before people start drinking the water again.”
She said the city and PHSD “should get the first set of sample results back today” as well as repeating the test for samples tomorrow. Groot said it’s important to leave 24 to 48 hours in between testings to ensure accuracy.
Dr. Emily Groot is the associate medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury and Districts. . (Supplied)
According to Public Health Ontario’s advice for drinking-well owners, total coliforms are a group of bacteria commonly found in animal waste, sewage, soil and vegetation. They are also found in the intestines of animals and humans. Total coliforms are not likely to cause illness, “but their presence indicates that your water supply may have been contaminated by more harmful microorganisms or may be a sign of bacterial regrowth.”
While it’s PHSD that issues the advisory for water quality, Groot said it’s the City of Greater Sudbury, working with the Ministry of the Environment, that does the testing. PHSD received the problematic test results late afternoon on May. 6. Groot confirmed that PHSD only receives results when there’s adverse (harmful or unfavourable) water quality issues.
The decision to call for a boil water advisory came after discussions with the city, as well as members of the PHSD staff and other ministry stakeholders.
But the call itself wasn’t as specific as the public would like. Sudbury.com and PHSD received feedback that the press release issued was not complete, even missing Wahnapitae from the list of unaffected areas.
Groot said PHSD would “adjust our messaging moving forward.”
“We needed to take some time to figure out exactly which sections of the water distribution system were affected, and we’re trying to describe this in the most straightforward terms possible, but it (our message) wasn’t as straightforward as we thought,” said Groot. “We’re working today to further map that out and hope to get more granular details to people today.”
She said it was a balance of the need to provide accurate information with the speed of safety for the public.
“Do we release the minimal amount of accurate information we have, or do we spend more time investigating?” she told Sudbury.com. “So, we erred on the side of getting out the information as quickly as we could.”
Groot said most importantly, PHSD wants to reassure people that at this time.
“We haven’t identified anything that’s known to cause illness in the water, and we haven’t had any reports of illness linked to consuming water,” she told Sudbury.com. “This advisory is precautionary, it’s to say that we’re not sure what’s going on. We’re not sure why we received these test results. So as an abundance of precaution, we’re recommending that people boil their water to ensure it’s safe, until we can get additional test results back that confirm yes the water is safe to drink.”
Groot said she understands the concern from residents who may have ingested the water just before the advisory, and that she counts herself among them.
“I was also drinking municipal water yesterday up until the advisory was released, and no, we don’t anticipate any health effects from this,” she said, reiterating the precautionary nature of the advisory.
“But because of these adverse water quality indicators that are now positive, we can’t be assured of the safety of the water anymore in the way that we normally would,” she said. “And so we want to make sure that we’re transparent with the public: we don’t have that testing result to say, yes, for sure, this is good, but the city has collected water that they are testing, and then we’ll actually do a second test again after that to confirm.”
You can find more information about the alert here, and instructions on how to boil water to safe levels here.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com