For the second straight day, the 200 residents of Foleyet are being told not to use the tap water from the village’s supply. It might be contaminated.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts issued the water advisory yesterday (Sunday).
A power outage caused a drop in pressure in the system. Environmental support officer Adam Ranger says that could cause contaminants to get in through any cracks in the line.
Because it’s not known what contaminants they could be, Ranger says the advisory is not to use the water at all. That differs from a boil water advisory.
“A boil water advisory,” Ranger explains, “ is when there is a known chemical contaminant, when boiling the water would make it safe to drink.”
Bottled water is the way to go. But Ranger says whether bottled or safe tap water… it should always be boiled when using it to make infant formula.
“You’d want to make sure that it’s boiled just to ensure that any form of contaminant from i.e. the container that you’re putting the formula into or the water you’re using, just to make sure that any form of contaminant is killed off from the boiling process.”
Ranger has no estimate when the water advisory will be lifted. That will happen when two consecutive water samples taken 24 hours apart are safe.
Questions? The health authority’s information line is 705-522-9200, ext. 398, toll-free at 1-866-522-9200.
The web address is www.phsd.ca.