Châteauguay Valley boil water advisory in effect until at least Friday

Residents in six municipalities on Montreal's South Shore will have to continue to boil their water for at least one more day.

The advisory, which was issued just before noon on Wednesday, covers Châteauguay, Mercier and Sainte-Martine as well as areas of Léry, Saint-Isidore and Saint-Urbain. About 70,000 people are affected.

Authorities said tests revealed an elevated amount of fecal coliforms or E. coli bacteria in an aqueduct that serves several municipalities.

The amount exceeds government standards and can indicate that the water contains other micro-organisms that cause diarrhea, vomiting and stomach aches.

Pipe burst to blame

Châteauguay Mayor, Nathalie Simon, said the cause of the contamination was a pipe that burst under St-Jean-Baptiste Blvd. last Wednesday.

She said the work on the pipe was completed this past Friday and a water sample for the area was sent to the lab. When they received the results they saw the elevated levels of bacteria.

"It's by precaution we put in place the boil water advisory," Simon said Thursday, adding that the municipalities have been continuously testing and analysing the results.

"Tomorrow we should know if the contamination was maintained to the area of the broken pipe or if it migrated elsewhere in the network."

Simon says results should be available by noon Friday and, based on those results, they will decide if they will lift the advisory.

As long as the advisory is in place, authorities are telling residents to use boiled or bottled water for things like preparing food and brushing teeth.

They say if residents choose to use tap water for those tasks, it must be boiled for at least a minute.

Water can still be used for washing clothes or taking a shower or bath.

Any ice cubes made with tap water in the last two days should be thrown out.

Some residents unaware of advisory

Despite the municipality's efforts, Châteauguay resident Erin Finnerty said she only learned about the boil water advisory when she logged onto Facebook later in the afternoon.

She says she does not have a landline phone so could not receive the robocall that was used to inform residents.

She says her family drinks tap water regularly and were likely still drinking the water when the advisory was put in place.

"For sure we all did, we were drinking all day until I went on Facebook," said Finnerty, adding that no one has shown signs of being sick.

As for the communication from the city, Finnerty says she is not satisfied with how it was handled.

Simon says the the city used a variety of ways to get the boil water advisory across to citizens including using social media, robocalls and trucks that were broadcasting the message.

"It's hard to be sure everybody has the information," said Simon. She said that residents often ignore mailed notices or do not pick up the phone.

She believes that "everything worked well" when it came to informing residents.