2020 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report
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2020 ANNUAL DRINKING WATER QUALITY REPORT ENGINEERING & PUBLIC WORKS Prepared June 11, 2021 File #: 11-5210-01/000/2021-1 Doc #: 4095458.v1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 4 Message from the Health Protection Manager ....................................................................... 4 Emergency Response Plan ........................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 5 SOURCE WATER TESTING ......................................................................................... 5 DISTRIBUTION TESTING ............................................................................................ 6 Sampling Stations ...................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 1: 2020 Sampling Station Locations ........................................................................................ 7 Table 1: 2020 Sampling Stations ......................................................................................................... 8 Sampling Frequency .................................................................................................................. 9 Table 2: 2020 Number of Samples Taken by Month ......................................................................... 9 Test Parameters ......................................................................................................................... 9 Regulations/Standards Distribution Testing ......................................................................... 10 Table 3: The Canadian Safe Drinking Water Guideline Parameters, Chemical, and Physical Properties Monitored ..........................................................................................................................11 MONITORING RESULTS ............................................................................................ 11 Table 4: 2020 Weekly Microbiological Testing Results ....................................................................11 E. Coli ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Total Coliform .......................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 2: 2020 Sampling Stations Indicating Positive for Coliform................................................13 Chlorine Residuals ................................................................................................................... 13 Table 5: 2020 Chlorine Residuals .......................................................................................................14 Figure 3: 2020 Chlorine Residuals .....................................................................................................15 Disinfection Byproducts .......................................................................................................... 16 Table 6: 2020 HAA Test Results ........................................................................................................17 ...............................................................................................................................................................17 Table 7: 2020 THM Test Result .........................................................................................................18 Metals Testing .......................................................................................................................... 19 Table 8: 2020 Metals Standards, Canadian Safe Drinking Water Guideline.................................19 Table 9: 2020 Coquitlam Metals Testing Results .............................................................................20 Vinyl Chloride .......................................................................................................................... 20 Table 10: 2020 Vinyl Chloride Results ..............................................................................................20 pH .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Table 11: 2020 pH Results ..................................................................................................................21 CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ....................................................................................... 21 SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS........................................................................................ 22 SYSTEM MAINTENANCE .......................................................................................... 22 2 File #: 11-5210-01/000/2021-1 Doc #: 4095458.v1 APPENDICES I Heath Link BC Bulletin #56 – Preventing Water-Borne Infections For People with Weakened Immune Systems II Greater Vancouver Water District 2020 Water Quality Annual Report – Volume I lII Monitoring Results from Coquitlam Sample Stations 3 File #: 11-5210-01/000/2021-1 Doc #: 4095458.v1 2020 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Under the BC Drinking Water Protection Act and Drinking Water Protection Regulation it is the City’s responsibility to continually monitor drinking water quality, and create summarized reports illustrating these results and making them available to the public. This report summarizes the monitoring under the City of Coquitlam drinking water monitoring program and documents the effectiveness of the barriers in place to protect water quality for the year 2020. Out of over two thousand samples taken in 2020, with only four water samples testing positive for non-fecal coliform bacteria. Out of the four positive coliform samples, one contained greater than the allowable criteria of no more than 10 total coliform per 100 ml. The City took action immediately and rectified the situation resulting in consecutive tests reading below the Regulation criteria. At no point did the City of Coquitlam exceed the 10% of samples showing the presence of coliform in a 30 day period permitted by the Safe Drinking Water Regulation. All drinking water samples have come within the acceptable levels of concentrations of disinfection bi-products (DBP’s), metals, and vinyl chlorides as established by the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. The City has recorded 44 water quality complaints in 2020. The majority of these were due to turbidity caused by normal operation and maintenance activities, and usually cleared up within 2 hours of the initial call. Message from the Health Protection Manager “Anytime the water in a particular faucet has not been used for six hours or longer, “flush” your cold-water pipes by running the water until you notice a change in temperature. (This could take as little as five to thirty seconds if there has been recent heavy water use such as showering or toilet flushing. Otherwise, it could take two minutes or longer.) The more time water has been sitting in your home’s pipes, the more lead it may contain. Use only water from the cold-tap for drinking, cooking, and especially making baby formula. Hot water is likely to contain higher levels of lead. The two actions recommended above are very important to the health of your family. They will probably be effective in reducing lead levels because most of the lead in household water usually comes from the plumbing in your house, not from the local water supply. Conserving water is still important. Rather than just running the water down the drain you could use the water for things such as watering your plants.” While the above message from the Health Protection Manager is good precautionary advice, it has more prominence in older communities that had widespread use of lead pipe & solder in their plumbing systems. Metro Vancouver also maintains water pH above 6.5 to control corrosion, which reduces the leaching of lead and copper into the water supply. Emergency Response Plan The City water utility is included in the Public Works Response Plan and Division Operation Centre Guidelines. The plan can be viewed on the City’s website; https://www.coquitlam.ca/DocumentCenter/View/447/Public-Works-Response-Plan-and- Division-Operation-Centre-Guidelines 4 2020 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report INTRODUCTION The Province of British Columbia has regulations set out in the Drinking Water Protection Act and the Drinking Water Protection Regulation. The Act establishes the requirements for operators and suppliers of drinking water to ensure the public are provided with safe drinking water. Along with the Act, the Regulation sets out minimum safety standards to be met for water treatment and sampling, further establishing a set of regulations for the operation and monitoring of water distribution systems. These regulations, along with emergency response plans, provide the public protection from water borne harmful bacteria or any contamination that may be hazardous to the public’s health. The Regulation stipulates in Section 8, Water Monitoring Analysis, that a supplier must collect and test samples from their distribution system as directed by a drinking water officer. In July 1998 the Lower Mainland Medical Health Officers issued the “Water Quality Monitoring Protocol” outlining the Health Officer’s requirements