Boil water advisory lifted at Wellington on the Lake
Administrator | Jul 17, 2023 | Comments 5
UPDATE JULY 17 – The boil water advisory issued by Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Thursday, July 13 for water users connected to the Wellington on the Lake has been lifted.
Two consecutive sets of drinking water samples have met the microbiological standards in Ontario Regulation 169/03 verifying that the water is safe to drink and use.
Affected customers may resume normal use of the drinking water for domestic purposes; however, customers may wish to flush household plumbing through the cold water taps until water runs cold to the touch.
Customers in Wellington on the Lake have been notified through an emailed notice from the drinking water system owner and Skootamatta Consulting.
Boil water advisory at Wellington on the Lake not a scam: municipality
UPDATE JULY 14: A boil water advisory has been issued for customers in the Wellington on the Lake drinking water system.
Wellington on the Lake is a separate drinking water system that receives water from the Wellington Drinking Water System. Customers connected to the Wellington Drinking Water System outside of Wellington on the Lake are not affected.
Wellington on the Lake is serviced by a separate drinking water system that receives treated water from the municipally-run water treatment plant in Wellington. As hired by the owner of the Wellington on the Lake subdivision, Skootamatta Environmental Consulting is responsible for overseeing the operation and testing of drinking water in the Wellington on the Lake system and informing residents when water related advisories are in affect.
The County rescinded a notice yesterday warning the public about a door-to-door scam about the advisory. The private water testing firm for Wellington on the Lake was going to door-to-door and the municipality was not notified.
In an update Friday morning, the County stated it “regrets the confusion caused by a notice it issued on July 13 warning of a scam related to the boil water advisory. The municipality was not notified that a boil water advisory had been issued for Wellington on the Lake water customers.”
Wellington on the Lake water customers are encouraged to contact the Overall Responsible Operator, Laura Reavie at Skootamatta Consulting, by phone 613.885.2896 or email laura@skootamattaconsulting.com if they have questions or concerns or call the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Unit at 613.966.5500 if they have questions about the boil water advisory.
Affected customers should bring water to a rapid boil for at least one minute prior to using it for domestic purposes (e.g. drinking, making infant formula and juice, brushing teeth, washing raw foods and making ice).
The boil water advisory remains in place until such time that the Health Unit in communication with the Wellington on the Lake system owner provides communication to affected residents within Wellington on the Lake community.
Filed Under: Local News
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The WOLRA board cannot direct Sandbank Homes / Frontier to do anything.
The WOLRA board did what it could to get the information out to the community including an email regarding the BWA that I received at 10:36 pm on July 13.
The County had just corrected its erroneous report that the BWA was a ‘scam’ being perpetrated on WOTL. The County has yet to explain how it came to believe that this was a scam and what they did or did not do to verify that claim.
B Wilder, thank you for your comment. This BWA emergency has brought to light the lack of transparent communication between all parties. The WOTL Board,(even though they are basically for recreation purposes) seems to have the best ability to step up to the plate and direct Sandbanks Homes/Frontier on how it should communicate with it’s residents . We have to look after our neighbours or we end up like large parts of the world where people turn a blind eye and say it’s not my job, someone else will do it.
Sharon, if you read the Public Health letter once again, you will note that the letter was addressed to Sandbank Homes. It directed Sandbanks Homes to notify the community. To date Sandbank Homes has not contacted me and I doubt they have communicated with you either. So far the only communication from Sandbanks I know of involves posting signs in the Recreation Centre. The resident’s association is only able to provide information as it is provided to them by Sandbanks Homes. My suspicion is the letter was not provided to the association until the 15th. It remains Sandbanks responsibility to communicate to the users of its water system. The resident’s association sent out a notice of the Boil Water advisory in the evening of July 13. My email says it was 10:36 pm. Remember that the County had already sent out a notice earlier in the day saying that the BWA was a ‘scam’. As well, the news story on this website saying the BWA was a scam remained until roughly 9 am on July 14. Please direct your ire properly: at Sandbanks Homes / Frontier Property Management and the County.
I have many questions that need to be answered. Some of them; How did e. coli contaminated water get into the pipe that comes to WOTL? Why did we receive only vague emails from our Board until the July15th copy of a letter from Public Health (dated July 13th) stated that there was e. coli. The Public Health letter also required that WOTL etc. contact all of those involved. There are about 250 who are not on the email list. Have they been contacted and how? Do those involved not remember Walkerton? The County, Public Health, and WOTL Board, Frontier etc.
There is an important question raised from this article. It says employees of Skootamata were going door to door warning of the water issue. However, the County issued a notice and press release warning that this was a ‘scam’. It said that the County was not ‘notified’ about the boil water advisory. The County however took it upon itself to call this a scam without investigating any further. As a result, some residents of Wellington on the Lake continued to use the water relying on the County’s assertion that this was not a real situation. If they had in fact investigated they would have learned that this was not a scam but an actual effort to warn people not to drink the water. The County should be required to explain how they determined that this was a scam and what they did to verify that conclusion.