Cranbrook, B.C., lifts boil water advisory after 2 days
City issued boil water notice after detecting disinfection issues during scheduled maintenance on Wednesday
The city of Cranbrook, B.C., in the Kootenays has lifted a city-wide boil water notice that was issued on Jan. 16.
Around 20,000 residents of Cranbrook had been told to boil water used for drinking, washing or brushing their teeth after a disinfection issue was detected during city maintenance on Wednesday.
At the time, the city said there had been brief instances where the water supply was over-chlorinated, following by a lack of chlorination.
While city staff were able to fix the disinfection issues within minutes, the city said it issued the boil water advisory out of an abundance of caution, and had expected it to last until Monday.
But on Saturday, just before 1 p.m. local time, the city said it was rescinding the boil water advisory on the advice of the Interior Health Authority.
"The City received approval from IHA to officially rescind the advisory on Saturday, [Jan.] 18, 2025 after water sample tests confirmed there are no contamination issues," read a city statement.
"We thank everyone for their patience and understanding due to the impact this has had on the community over the past couple of days," it added.
The city statement added that staff have received funding for a new UV water disinfection facility, with an updated timeline on that project expected later this year.
Tony Hetu, Cranbrook's director of public works, told CBC News in an interview that the exact cause of the disinfection problem was still unclear, as well as how much over-chlorinated water made its way into the system.
"It's difficult to put a quantity to it, but we were able to go down to the first point of entry into the city system and ... disperse it into the stormwater system through [a] fire hydrant," he said. "So we did get most of it out."
With files from Corey Bullock