Water quality weighs heavy

Page 29

Following well-publicized cases of drinking water contamination in Walkerton, Ont. and North Battleford, Sask., concerns about water quality are growing in communities across the country. Those concerns are even greater in First Nations communities, and for good reason.

A 1995 Health Canada report indicated that, out of 863 First Nations water systems surveyed, 171 systems had potential health and safety concerns. An informal telephone survey done last September showed 125 communities where the water system was a concern. Thirty-five of those systems were among those identified in the 1995 survey.

Although Health Canada officials stressed last year's results were just a "snapshot in time" and the results of a similar survey done now would likely show different results, the numbers are still alarming.

Among the problems identified in last year's informal survey were treated water that exceeded guidelines for acceptable turbidity, coliform, and trihalomethane (THM) levels.

During a three-day conference on safe drinking water in rural communities held in Saskatoon in early May, two days of the conference were dedicated to First Nations water quality issues.

The conference was co-ordinated by the Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Water and Waste Water Advisory Committee, and the Safe Drinking Water Foundation.

Dr. Hans Peterson is executive director of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, a charitable organization that works to ensure people in rural areas around the world have access to safe drinking water.

According to Dr. Peterson, drinking water quality in large centres in Canada isn't a concern, because most cities in Canada not only meet, but exceed the Canadian water quality guidelines. That, however, is not the case in rural areas and First Nations communities.

"One of the big challenges that was perceived (at the conference) is the lack of standards for drinking water. Unless we have some enforceable standards, it will be very difficult for First Nations to have water treatment, or to get water treatment systems that actually measure up. Because, quite frankly, if the end result is that you only worry about coliforms in the distribution system or at the treatment plant, you don't need a treatment plant. All you need is some Javex to pour in the water, because they should be killed by the Javex. So one really needs treatment-based guidelines. You need to treat it a certain way. You need to remove the particles," Peterson said.

Peterson compared the situation in Edmonton, where the water treatment plant meets the most stringent water quality guidelines in North America, the Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule, a step above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Surface Water Treatment Rule used by most large municipalities, to the situation on Yellow Quill First Nation in Saskatchewan, where a boil water advisory has been in effect since 1995.

"They have turbidity levels in the water, in the distributed water, that is sometimes greater than 10. Edmonton has to be less than 0.1. They have particle counts greater than 10,000 per ml, when it should be less than 50 per ml. How many First Nations do you think have looked at particle counts in their drinking water? Not too many. So it's a big, big question mark. And what does it do to the health of the people? That's another big question mark," Dr. Peterson said.

"If you look at the urban situation, you have something like 60 health guidelines, a majority of these are measured by most big cities. In addition to that, they take all kinds of precautions to make sure that they don't only meet that, but they also produce water that is far better than the Canadian water quality guidelines. Whereas, on First Nations and in small communities, they take a very small subset of those drinking water quality guidelines and test that small subset, and as long as they're within that little subset of guidelines, they go and say, 'Oh well, the water is sfe'. Now, the very extreme is when people simply take a coliform test and a nitrate test. And that is routinely done for many individual users that send in their water samples to be tested. And it's certainly also done in some First Nations situations. And then those people have to make a decision on those two types of determinations whether their water is safe or not. In fact, frequently making decisions whether it's safe even for infants. And what we are saying is that is totally unacceptable."

Bill Marion is a member of the First Nations Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee. Marion is manager of public works for James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, and has worked as a water and wastewater plant operator for 17 years.

Marion believes one of the ways to ensure First Nations have access to safe drinking water is by providing water and wastewater operators on First Nations with opportunities to become certified.

"There is kind of a shift towards mandatory certification here in Canada with the provinces. However that doesn't necessarily include First Nations," he said.

"We're looking for various potential approaches to try to create those opportunities for First Nations operators to receive certification. Because definitely, we see the need at the First Nations community level, to have the same level of trained operators as any other community."

Marion spoke at the Saskatoon conference about the need to develop a First Nations safe drinking water program with five essential elements: sound and implementable drinking water quality guidelines; an adequate water supply and treatment system; good operation of the water supply and treatment system; a comprehensive drinking water quality monitoring system; and a means of ensuring compliance to the guidelines.

Will David is contaminants co-ordinator with the Assembly of First Nations. He said he's been working with others there to develop a national water strategy for First Nations. Right now work is being done o gather information about what the water quality situation is on First Nations across the country. The conference was part of that information gathering process, he explained.

"That meeting in Saskatoon was to get an assessment from treatment plant operators, and other people who work at the community level, in terms of what they see the problems are and what their immediate needs are. And then I guess what we're going to do is collate that with sort of our analysis of the data that's out there right now, the available data, and then also the current and anticipated government initiatives."

Although the original timeframe for completing the water strategy was March 15, that schedule was forced off the rails by Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault's governance act initiative.

"It's occupying much more of our attention than anything else right now," David said. No new date for completion of the water strategy has been set.