COMMUNITY SERVICES AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
	TO:	Mayor and Members of Council
	FROM:	Stan Bertoia, General Manager of Construction and Utilities
	PREPARED BY:	Jerry Klaus, General Manager of Waterworks
	DATE OF MEETING:	2004-Nov-15
	SUBJECT:	Third Water Quality Quarterly Report for 2004

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Third Water Quality Quarterly Report (Attachments “A” and “B”) be received.

PURPOSE:

To report on the results of the third quarterly water sampling and testing for the period July 1, 2004 to September 30, 2004.

BACKGROUND:

Ontario Drinking-water Systems Regulation (O.Reg.170/03) requires all drinking-water system owners to collect and test a minimum prescribed number of representative water quality samples. For Markham, the minimum required quarterly number is 1463.

WATER SAMPLING AND TESTING SUMMARY:

During the period July 1, 2004 to September 30, 2004, the total number of water samples collected and tested by Waterworks operators, or sent to York-Durham Regional Environmental Laboratory (YDREL) for analysis was 2691. The higher number of samples than the minimum samples over the regulatory requirement is needed to satisfy the system’s needs and for quality assurance. This number of samples is significantly higher than the minimum due to chlorine residual testing at system dead-ends.

In total, seven samples failed to meet the Ontario Drinking-water Systems Regulation (O.Reg.170/03). Three were bacteriological samples of which one sample exceeded the limit for Background Colony Count (BKD) after 24 hours, and two exceeded the limit for Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) after 48 hours. The three bacteriological samples required 18 re-samples. These re-samples were collected at each of the adverse, upstream, and downstream locations and tested, and all found to pass the BKD and HPC regulatory limits respectively. The other four samples at the dead-ends failed due to low combined chlorine residual levels (less than 0.25 mg/L) after one minute of flushing. The corrective steps which involved extended system flushing, were undertaken until the levels were within 10% of the system’s combined chlorine residual levels, and well above the MOE minimum level of 0.25 mg/L.

COMMUNICATION:

The Third Water Quality Quarterly Report, after being received by Council, will be available to the public. This report in conjunction with the two previous reports and the forthcoming fourth quarterly report will form the 2004 Annual Regulatory Report to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) under Section 11 and Schedule 22 of Regulation 170/03.

CURRENT AND FUTURE ACTIVITIES TO BE UNDERTAKEN BY WATERWORKS:

As stated in the previous Second Water Quality Quarterly Report for 2004, Waterworks had begun to install pedestal sampling stations within the right-of-way. A total of 86 sampling stations were tendered to be installed in 2004. By November 15, 2004, a total of 60 sampling stations will be in place and in use. The remaining 26 sampling stations are expected to be installed and operational by the end of the year 2004.

As a regulatory requirement, Waterworks has begun implementing a comprehensive system’s dead-end flushing and chlorine residual analysis program, which involves 283 dead-ends throughout Markham. As of October 22, 2004, a total of 200 dead-ends have been flushed, and 9884 residual chlorine testings performed.

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment “A” – Third Water Quality Report for July to September, 2004 (Technical version)

Attachment “B” – Water Quality Quarterly Report – Jul. to Sept., 2004 (User-friendly version)

Stan Bertoia, P. Eng. General Manager, Construction and Utilities

Peter Loukes, P. Eng. Director, Operations and Asset Management

Jim Sales

Commissioner of Community and Fire Services

R:\Year 2004\Community Services & Environment\November 15\Third Water Quality Quarterly Report for 2004.doc