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April 1 2015
If you happen to be walking the Athalmer shoreline and notice how trash-free the edge of Lake Windermere looks, you have Bruce and Liz Robinson to thank. They cleaned the area on Saturday, March 28th as part of the Lake Windermere Ambassadors’ annual Shoreline Cleanup day.
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Invermere launches testing to pinpoint water issue STEVE HUBRECHT steve@invermerevalleyecho.com
winderberry.ca
The District of Invermere will be conducting testing throughout the summer to try and pinpoint the cause of taste and odour issues that some residents have with the water coming out of their taps. Engineers from Urban Systems, the company that does the work on the district’s water systems, and a representative from the provincial Interior Health Authority (IHA) attended a committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, March 24th, at which the Urban Systems engineers unveiled a work plan to test the water during the next several months. “Basically they outlined a work plan for the next six to eight months to do a bunch of testing to see what it is that cause the taste and odour issue,” said Invermere mayor Gerry Taft, speaking after the meeting. “One of the top prior-
ities of council, as decided during the last municipal election campaign, was to deal with the taste and odour concerns some of the public have around the water, so that’s where this stems from. We’re following through on that.” Taft said council members are hope-
cause may be. “There have been many theories for a while. One of the main ones is that there are lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water and that creates conditions that allow organic organisms to grow. Some preliminary testing in the past
One of the top priorities of council, as decided during the last municipal election campaign, was to deal with the taste and odour concerns some of the public have around the water... we’re following through on that. GERRY TAFT DISTRICT OF INVERMERE MAYOR
ful that the engineers will be able to figure out the problem, or at least determine if it is an issue in the source supply of Invermere’s water, or if it is a problem that arises in the distribution part of the district’s water system. In the meantime, there are plenty of anecdotal theories as to what the
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showed sufficient levels of dissolved oxygen. Another theory is that some of the dead end pipes in the district’s water system would make organic compounds, if they exist, worse. Anecdotally speaking, a lot of the complaints come from certain areas of the town, which suggests the problem is specific
to certain neighbourhoods,” said Taft, adding ultimately testing is necessary to get to the bottom of the issue. “There are these theories, but we don’t know. We need to do further testing to determine that,” he said. “Is it an issue with the source water, or in the distribution system, or is it a combination? We don’t know.” The IHA representative at the meeting clarified to council that while the district may have issue with taste and smell, the water is fine to drink. “He made clear that from IHA’s perspective that this is purely aesthetic and that our water is totally safe. He was quite adamant that it meets all the IHA parameters,” said Taft. Urban Systems will take samples throughout the summer as bench testing and compare it to winter testing, hopefully then drawing some conclusion as to the nature of the problem. See A3
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