CIS Agenda - 2022-03-07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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(b) for each failure referred to in (a), describe the measures that were taken to correct the failure. The report must also include a summary of the quantities and flow rates of the water supplied during the period covered by the report. REPORT: The following matters are reported to Council in accordance with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2021: • The Kitchener Distribution System is part of an Integrated Urban System, meaning the Regional Municipality of Waterloo is responsible for water treatment and the development and operation of a trunk water network to distribute treated water to Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo, Woolwich, and Wilmot. The Region provides annual summaries for each supply and the information is available on their website with a link from the Kitchener Utilities (KU) website. Reports from the connected systems have been or will be received. • A portion of Kitchener (River Ridge area) is supplied by the City of Waterloo. Kitchener supplies water to a small section of Waterloo (Ira Needles area) and water travels through the Kitchener distribution system to Breslau. The City of Waterloo's water quality report is available on their website. • The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) completed an annual inspection on June 22, 2021, which covered June 30, 2020 to June 22, 2021. There were no non -compliances found. • There were 3,612 chlorine residual samples taken and 1,760 bacteriological samples taken within the distribution system. Of these, there were 21 Adverse Water Quality Incidents (AWQI's) reported in this time period (see Table 1) and all resamples were clear. The City was on a ministry approved reduced sampling schedule for a portion of 2021 due to COVID access restrictions on many sampling sites. • An AWQI does not necessarily mean that the water is a risk to the customer. It means that a potential problem has been identified and corrective actions must be taken to resolve the problem. City staff work with ministry staff and the local public health unit to resolve the issue, which generally includes resampling. • Low chlorine AWQIs can occur in areas of new subdivisions with no houses yet built. Along with dead end watermains, KU proactively flushes areas with new watermains until there are homes built and water is being used. • Dead end watermain and new development flushing is a proactive approach to increase the levels of chlorine in the distribution system. The water is initially disinfected (primary disinfection) at the treatment plant and sufficient chlorine is added to protect the water from microbiological contamination as it travels through the pipes in the distribution system (secondary disinfection). Low chlorine does not pose a threat to human health; to have an impact to human health, there must be microbiological contamination and no, or extremely low, chlorine. • Of the total coliform AWQIs (17 total): o Eight (8) were at temporary sampling locations within reconstruction projects. Temporary watermains are particularly sensitive as they are above ground systems influenced by the water heating up in warmer temperatures. This may increase the potential for bacteriological growth. Warmer weather seems to increase the incidences of Total Coliform. The additional challenge with Page 4 of 132