Fort Macleod under boil-water order

By Kuhl, Nick on April 9, 2014.

Nick Kuhl

Lethbridge Herald

nkuhl@lethbridgeherald.com

Fort Macleod residents have been under an Alberta Health Services boil-water order since late Monday night, and will be until further notice.

Town CAO David Connauton said the system at the towns water treatment plant depressurized for 25 minutes and, as a precautionary measure, they now need to flush it out before the water supply can be deemed 100 per cent safe for consumption.

We had a power failure; short-lived but it was enough to cause some issues and our system went down for about 25 minutes, Connauton said Tuesday morning, adding the boil-water order for Fort Macleod could last for two to three days.

On the advice of Alberta Health Services, we had to go to the boil-water order. Its better to be precautionary. We havent had too many issues yet. People just want to know whats going on moreso than anything.

Town officials put out a Facebook post Monday night, as well as a notice on the town website, asking residents to boil their water for at least one minute, then to let it cool properly, before consuming.

AHS says boil-water orders are issued when harmful microbes, like E.coli bacteria or Giardia parasites, may be present in a drinking water supply. Consuming water contaminated with these microbes can make people and pets very sick. Boiling water will kill these microbes and make the water safe to drink.

Original post:
Fort Macleod under boil-water order