B.C. residents fight city’s order to clean water despite E. coli threat

You'd think if your drinking water was contaminated with E. coli bacteria you'd be only too happy to have a little chlorine added in to ensure no one comes down with a potentially deadly infection.

But in Chilliwack, B.C., the Fraser Valley city of 82,000 about 90 minutes east of Vancouver, some people are doing just the opposite. They've been fighting the order to treat their water and hoarding bottles of the unchlorinated stuff, according to the National Post.

Chilliwack's untreated water, once recognized as the best tasting in the world, is apparently under threat not from a dangerous pathogen but from the chemical disinfectant now mandated to get rid of it.

I mean, what's a little fecal matter in the water when your town risks losing its international claim to fame because it now smells like bleach.

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But E. coli is no laughing matter. Seven people died and about 2,300 fell ill in the town of Walkerton, Ont., (pop. 5,000) in 2000 after E. coli from fecal coliform in groundwater got into the town's well-sourced water supply. The criminally negligent actions of officials in charge of the water system, Stan and Frank Koebel, delayed a response.

Provincial health officials initially ordered chlorine to be added to the water from the city's emergency system "until further notice" after E. coli was first detected last month, according to the Chilliwack Progress.

But the source of the contamination has been elusive and on Thursday they ordered the chlorination be made permanent.

“Council is extremely disappointed to hear this news, but we have no option but to comply with the Fraser Health Authority mandate,” said Mayor Sharon Gaetz, the Progress reported. "I know this news will initially be difficult to accept."

Gaetz had balked at chlorination and received support from local Liberal MLA John Les, parliamentary secretary to Premier Christy Clark.

"I refer to it as polluting our water supply," he told CBC News last month.

Chilliwack residents who apparently saw this coming began a movement to try and stop it. About 4,500 signed a petition against chlorination on a web site, Chilliwackwater.com.

"Water quality is part of Chilliwack's identity," the anti-chlorination group says. "In 1997 and 1999 we were proud to be awarded best water in Canada by the Canadian Water Resource Association. Since that time Chilliwack has been recognized by the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting as having some of the best tasting water in the world."

Interestingly, Chilliwack chlorinated its water until 1998, when closed down surface-water intakes in favour of well water from the local aquifer, according to the city's own web site.

The anti-chlorination group said the E. coli likely came from bird and/or bat droppings finding their way into hilltop reservoirs and that it affected less than three per cent of Chilliwack househoulds.

"Contrary to some of the misinformation being spread in the media our water is extremely clean and safe."

But the Fraser Health Authority's chief medical health officer said officials had no choice.

“Over the years, Chilliwack’s water system has been compromised on many occasions resulting in fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria entering the distribution system,” Dr. Paul Van Buynder said in a statement released Thursday and reported in the Progress.

“After a review of the relevant data and conversations with public works staff at the City of Chilliwack, it is my assessment that ongoing secondary disinfection of the water supply system with chlorine or an equivalent compound is necessary to ensure a safe drinking water supply.”

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E. coli has turned up in Chilliwack's water about once a year since 2009, though at nothing like the levels that sickened Walkerton, the Post noted.

Fraser Health warned low levels of E. coli do mean the pathogen is any less potent, just that the odds of drinking it are reduced.

“No amount of E. coli, or other fecal organisms in our water, is acceptable,” reads a description on the Fraser Health web site, according to the Post.

To add insult to injury, converting the standby chlorination system to a permanent one will add three per cent to water bills.

The Progress reported this week that the anti-chlorination backlash has sparked a run on bottled water and filtration systems at local stores.