Students and staff at one Powell River elementary school will enjoy a refreshing change when they return after spring break. They’ll be able to drink from the school’s water fountains.
School District 47 recently had a water filtration system installed at Kelly Creek Community School (KCCS) to solve a decades-old problem of high levels of naturally occurring arsenic in its well water. Up until now, students and staff have had to drink bottled water and all the school’s fountains were disconnected.
“It’s been a problem from quite a while,” said Vancouver Coastal Health drinking water officer Dan Glover.
The system, installed by local contractor Target Installations and designed by Aaron Supply and Service, costing just under $50,000, includes a titanium oxide filter, chlorination and treatment with ultraviolet light.
Technology for filtering water has changed. Twenty years ago Dr. Paul Martiquet, chief medical officer for Coast Garibaldi Health, the precursor to VCH, was recommending homeowners install reverse osmosis systems to clean up the water, which removed on average about 86 per cent of the arsenic. Health Canada’s water quality standard on arsenic levels in drinking water is 10 parts per billion (ppb) (10 μg/L) though it was reduced from an interim standard of 25 ppb. Even with a reverse osmosis system, there was no guarantee that arsenic would be reduced enough to make the water drinkable.
Aaron Service and Supply’s Trevor Anderson said that in addition to it not being a very effective way to deal with arsenic, reverse osmosis systems are wasteful.
“To make one good gallon of water you lose one gallon,” said Anderson. “It’s not feasible anymore. There’s better technology.”
The filter in the new system from Graver Technologies is also designed to reduce a number of metals including lead, mercury, selenium, cadmium, to name a few.
The arsenic problem is isolated to the areas south of Powell River. In 1994, Coast Garibaldi Health sponsored a program to allow property owners with wells to have their wells tested for arsenic. Results from the study indicated that 25 per cent of wells between Lang Bay and Saltery Bay, and 19 per cent around the Black Point/Kelly Creek area had arsenic levels above 25 ppb.
A report completed by the Institute for Resources and Environment at the University of BC conducted in 2000 identified the source of the naturally occurring arsenic to mineralized deposits in bedrock fissures and that well depth was not a factor in arsenic contamination. Geologists believe that groundwater which flows through these fissures dissolves and transports the arsenic to the wells.
Health risks associated with long-term ingestion of water with high levels of arsenic include cancer, nausea, diarrhea, skin discoloration, abnormal heart rhythm, headaches and irritability.
Anderson said that the well only produces between half a gallon to a gallon per minute. To balance out supply, a water storage tank was installed on the property.
The new system is connected to the storage tank and the school’s water lines have been flushed.
District principal Troy Marshall said that in the 1970s and 80s two wells were drilled on the KCCS property trying to solve the water problems.
“This really exceeds our expectations, the arsenic is not even detectable anymore,” said Marshall. “The water is perfect now.”
The next step is to convince the public that drinking the water at the school is safe.
Marshall said that the school district is waiting for final certification from the health authority on the drinking water before it roles out an education program in the classroom and for parents. He added that the school district will go ahead once the KCCS students return from their spring break on March 31.
~ with files from Laura Walz
