Clean water a priority at Little Pine

Page 11

In the wake of the North Battleford water crisis a year ago, one reserve in the northwest of the province has taken significant steps to improve its water quality.

After finding two ground water wells to meet the demands of its growing population, Little Pine First Nation added a new filtering procedure this past winter. Half of the reserve's 160 homes are now connected to the water hook-up while the other half have about 750 litres of water per person delivered each week.

Little Pine has had its own water treatment plant since 1984, but with an increased concern about the safety of drinking water right across the country, the community decided to take a closer look at what was coming out of its taps.

The reserve's plant operator, Carl Kennedy, was hearing complaints about discoloration in the water, bad smells and residue left behind on clothes after washing. The problems were a result of high levels of iron and manganese content from the new wells and although, as Kennedy pointed out, the water wasn't unsafe, it was definitely unpleasant.

"Filters were added after we realized we couldn't treat with just chlorine," said Kennedy, who has been plant operator for two years.

As a precautionary measure during the construction of the filters, the reserve was under a boil water advisory for five weeks ending this past February. In the last three months since the filters were put in place, there haven't been any concerns with the water, Kennedy noted.

Only 15 kilometres north of Little Pine, the town of Paynton was under a boil water advisory in May following the discovery of E. coli in a water sample. Like the reserve, Paynton also draws its water from a ground source, although it's a different well than Little Pine.

With a treatment plant 40 years old, that town had added new filters six years ago. Paynton's mayor of 15 years, Lloyd Holmes indicated that, although there was some concern about the boil water order, he didn't notice any panic among his residents during the seven-day advisory, nor were there any illnesses.

"Everybody got excited when we got a bad test but you can't blame them," Holmes said.

The mayor explained that the testing for E. coli-which is mandated by the province and regional health boards and has to be conducted once every two weeks-is quite sensitive and delicate. Holmes believed the problem could have occurred when the town was fixing its main water line earlier in May.

While Paynton's residents had the inconvenience, and worry, of boiling water, the community didn't make any arrangements to have water provided by outside sources, in part because of an inability to store mass quantities of water. Kennedy, though, would have been prepared to assist on a cost-recovery basis.

"If we would be able to help them out and truck the water, we could have but they didn't ask," said Kennedy, who noted Little Pine's wells have enough to share for a short time.

Water quality in Saskatchewan towns and cities is under the watch of regional health districts, while water supplies on reserves are maintained by the Indian health services departments of First Nations bands or tribal councils. Similar regulations dealing with water quality exist for those living on and off reserves, although testing for E. coli and coliform, bacteria that could be harmful, occurs twice as frequently on reserve at four times per month.

Dr. Shauna Hudson, the medical health officer for the First Nations and Inuit Health Board in Regina says there are rarely boil water advisories issued on reserves. When it does happen, it's more often because not enough chlorine has been added at the treatment plant.

Of 70 Saskatchewan reserves, 62 have their own treatment plants with the remaining eight drawing their water from a nearby city's supply. Hudson stated that all those on reserves have access to clean, potable water.

"Every tribal council delivers (water quality) in a different way, according to Canadian operational gidelines, and modified based on the water treatment they have," said Hudson.

However, in the year after North Battleford, some areas of the province still have to monitor their water supply with a more watchful eye than others. Yellow Quill First Nation near Kelvington uses a surface creek as the course of most of its water, and the community has been plagued by ongoing problems with the quality of that water.

While inquiries totaling millions of dollars are still pending as to the cause of the North Battleford problem, Kennedy cites the unclean water in Yellow Quill had been there for a long time.

"From where they (Yellow Quill) draw their water, there's a pasture and a town sewer that goes through there and they've been telling INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) all these years," Kennedy said.

For most of the last two years, there has been a bottling plant at Yellow Quill to provide cleaner drinking water. Maintenance co-ordinator for the Saskatoon Tribal Council, Lorne Binsfeld, said more is being done for those residents.

A pilot project will be completed within two months that will improve water quality by using a nanofiltration process. By next summer, a permanent plant will be constructed that will provide 300 to 400 22-litre jugs of drinking water per day.

While this system comes as a relief to Yellow Quill, Binsfeld believes construction of the new plant wouldn't have been possible had there not been outside pressure exerted.

"Once the Safe Water Drinking Foundation (a Saskatoon-based charity that works to ensure people in rural area around the world have access to safe drinking water) got on board, they convinced INAC that the present conventional treatment was not capable of treating the raw water," said Binsfeld.

Back in Little Pine, that reserve will incorporate a secondary filtering system by this autumn. Similar to Yellow Quill, a reverse osmosis process will cleanse the water even more by using ultra-violet rays to kill bacteria.

Fo the cost of $20,000,The First Nation can provide each household with two 22-litre jugs of better drinking water each day. Kennedy believes this is a nominal price for increased health.

"It's another step chief and council is looking at for providing water quality to its residents," Kennedy said.