B.C. Interior communities face millions in water upgrades, including former home of the 'world's best water'

Happily retired and living in the small east Kootenay village of Canal Flats, Gayle Lake never expected to become an expert in municipal water systems.

"Our water quality has always been amazing," she said, praising the clean but untreated well water flowing from the taps. 

"I've lived in the community for over 40 years, and I don't actually remember any time that we've had a boil water advisory. There's never been a problem with the quality or quantity of water that we have."

Lake is now the volunteer chair of Canal Flats' new Water Protection and Advisory Committee, tasked with figuring out a way to implement Interior Health orders to upgrade and disinfect the water system, a project that could cost the small village of some 800 residents millions of dollars. 

On Monday, March 17, her committee will hold a contentious town hall meeting to explain to residents that while their water is tested and fine, they need to meet new provincial guidelines to mitigate the risk of water contamination.

Lake has yet to convince the mayor who appointed her to the job.

"We're still not over it ... we were kind of taken aback," Mark Doherty said of the Interior Health letter that warned the village of health orders, even closure of the water system, if improvements weren't made.    

"We didn't feel that our water was an issue.  It's, I think, probably the best water in the valley."

'It's a huge challenge. We recognize it'

New, tougher, provincial standards and testing came into effect after 2016 legislative changes to B.C.'s Drinking Water Protection Act, particularly concerning tests for Ground Water at Risk of Containing Pathogens (GARP).

Floods, heavy rains, and spillage can potentially contaminate well water with farm waste or chemicals. The deeper the well, the lower the risk from dangerous pathogens like E. coli, giardia, or cryptosporidium.   

"If well water is used without any form of [disinfectant] treatment, then there is the potential for community outbreaks, and we have seen those," says Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health's director of environmental public health and licensing, who oversees some 2,000 regulated water systems in the region.   

"The biggest example obviously is places like Walkerton."

In 2000, runoff from farms contaminated the Ontario town's well water.  More than 2,000 people fell ill from E. coli gastroenteritis. Seven residents died, and others were left with chronic illnesses.

As a result of the new standard, Interior Health ordered dozens of communities to hire consultants to perform new GARP tests and reassess the risk of well contamination. 

"It's a huge challenge. We recognize it," said Zimmerman. 

"It's a problem that takes a lot of community effort, takes planning, takes work, and unfortunately takes money to work." 

Canal Flats, Fruitvale's Beaver Falls Water Works, and Greenwood all got caught by the new standards. 

'World's Best Municipal Water'

Dean Trumbley, the chief administrative officer of the City of Greenwood, says the irony of the news wasn't lost on residents used to boasting about its boundary region tap water. 

"I'm not happy," he says, "You know, the initial response is like, everybody [saying] 'how do you go from having the world's best water to all of a sudden having to disinfect it?'"

In 2012, Greenwood won the title of "World's Best Municipal Water" at the 22nd annual International Water Tasting competition.

Trumbley, who has a background working on water quality issues with other municipalities,  drilled down into the problem,  looking at issues like legal liability for contamination, health consequences, and the condition of the city's aging water infrastructure. 

"It's a tough one because you know … it's not necessary," he said. "Then all of a sudden something happens and the reality is, especially with climate change, we are experiencing a lot more floods. Do I feel there's an increased risk? Yes."

In December 2023, after consultations with residents,  the city approved a plan to dig new wells, replace a reservoir and pipes, and install a chlorine disinfecting system to mitigate risks.   

For Trumbley, the cost is harder to swallow than the water. 

"[We're] Canada's smallest incorporated city. You know a $5 million project, for most municipalities, is not that much. When we only have a tax base of under a million [dollars], it's pretty significant," he said.

Greenwood received federal and provincial infrastructure funding for the project but is still paying $1.5 million, which was covered by dipping deep into financial reserves.

"What bugs me, I guess, is that when these types of things happen, it's just announced, and then local governments are on the hook for it,"  Trumbley said of the changing health standard.  

In a joint statement to CBC News, B.C.'s Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs defended the tougher water quality standards and pointed to a variety of federal and provincial programs to help municipalities facing infrastructure costs:

"[Standards were] developed after extensive consultation with communities and drinking water professionals across B.C. and is aligned with best practices across Canada for assessing risks to groundwater, which may inform drinking water treatment needs to protect public health."

Canal Flats struggles for a solution

In Canal Flats, the cost and necessity of the infrastructure upgrades weigh on the mayor's mind. 

"If the government is going to start downloading more and more stuff like they have been lately to the municipalities, they have to supply the municipalities with a way to deal with it, whether that be money, whether that be support, whether it be bringing people in to do it," Doherty said.

"But just to download it on smaller communities, it's a hardship." 

Gayle Lake says Interior Health representatives are working with the committee to look at options to reduce contamination risk, taking a step-by-step approach before issuing any formal health orders.

But chlorination remains the preferred solution.

With pressure to act building, the choice between public health and public demands may come down to politics.

"I do have to make sure that we're doing the best for the community itself," said Doherty.

"And the view of the community is we don't need to disinfect our water with chlorine."