City of Powell River officials have not yet taken possession of a concrete reservoir that is part of an $8.5-million upgrade to the drinking water system.
The structure is filled with water that Vancouver Coastal Health’s drinking water officer, Dan Glover, has determined is not potable.
Jeremy Sagebiel, the city’s engineering technologist, said the reservoir was filled with about six million litres of water after the contractor, Maple Reinders Inc., sealed cracks that appeared in the structure after it was filled initially.
Glover told the Peak the water wasn’t potable because the tank had not been disinfected. The tank has to be drained and disinfected, he explained. “It hasn’t been done to our satisfaction yet,” he said. “That needs to be done before they can fill it and use the water for consumption.”
The water can’t go into the storm sewer system, said Sagebiel, because it drains into Cranberry Lake. “Once it flows out of Cranberry Lake, it goes back into our system and then finally the ocean,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of fish habitat through that chain.”
City officials are speaking to representatives from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada about the issue, Sagebiel explained, “just to make sure that we follow absolutely [all] procedure that we can to ensure no damage to the environment.”
The contractor is responsible for the cost of disposing of the water, Sagebiel also said. No one from Maple Reinders returned the Peak’s phone call.
