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Drinking water of the best around
Gerty Shipmaker North Valley Echo Staff
September, 2009
Go ahead, pour yourself a cold one in good conscience.
A cold glass of water, that is, straight from your tap in your home in Enderby, and know that you are drinking some of the best water in Canada.
The city's drinking water comes from two sources, one being the Shuswap River, with the intake being just south of the bridge and the other source is an aquifer 5 km east of the city, alongside the Shuswap River.
The water is treated with chlorine and put in mains and then it goes into the water plant. There it is treated further with UV and chlorine. Because of the treatment provided, our plant is considered a Level 3 Plant, which is normally reserved for a large community.
"We have excellent technology," says Darwyn Kutney, Director of Engineering and Public Works, "state of the art treatment. We meet or exceed Canadian Water Standards." He explained that while there is some seasonal turbidity, there are filters in place to easily handle it.
There is rigorous testing done on the water. Interior Health mandates that samples be taken daily and weekly water samples are sent to Caro Environmental Services in Kelowna for testing. "We are tested and controlled to death," says Kutney with a laugh.
As far as the quality of our river getting worse, he says that they haven't seen any degradation in the water. "Even with beer bottles thrown in and people perhaps using it as a washroom, with the amount of cubic metres of water that goes through, it's simply not an issue."
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