Bathurst residents concerned about cloudy, brown drinking water
City says water is safe to drink, issues appear to be resolved
The water flowing from Joel Pickard's faucet looked clear at first.
But after pouring a glass — he could tell something was wrong.
"I could just smell the dirt, so I took a drink and it tasted like dirt," he said.
The Bathurst resident noticed what appeared to be sediment in his drinking water, so he reported it to the city in June. They told him it was safe, so his family continued using it until the taste became too strong to swallow.
The northern New Brunswick community has been grappling with municipal water problems over the past month. In early October, it issued a cloudy water advisory, after a flood of complaints to city hall and on social media.
Residents claimed the water from their taps turned dark brown, sandy and discoloured, with an earthy taste and smell. It became so cloudy, the city's advisory warned residents to check the colour before doing any laundry.
The city did not issue a boil water advisory, saying it wasn't necessary.
Staining laundry
Pickard's water only experienced slight discolouration, but the taste didn't leave him with enough confidence it was safe to drink. After seeing the problem was widespread in the community, he switched to buying bottled water.
"I didn't feel it was 100% safe to drink, but going on what I was told by the city, they said it was safe to drink so I assumed they had done the tests that were required," he said.
Pickard said other Bathurst residents have had clothes stained when doing laundry.
"Someone had to fill up their washer six times and drain it before the water cleared up. That's a lot of water to go through," he said.
No public danger, city says
The City of Bathurst told CBC no one was available for an interview.
Spokesperson Luc Foulem said the city tests its water at different points, multiple times per week, under provincial health guidelines.
Residents claim the issues started earlier this year and have been recurring on and off for months.
The city said it became aware of the discolouration on Oct. 5.
"It should be noted that turbidity in the water leaving our plant was well below levels required and distribution network tests show chlorine residuals within specified limits. With that said, there was no reason to believe the water wasn't safe," Foulem said in a written statement.
"If our testing had showed danger to the public, we would have immediately notified the Department of Health and a boil order advisory would have been implemented," he said.
Turbidity created brown colour
The city blames the problem on increased turbidity, a measurement of particles in water, occurring outside of the municipal water treatment plant. It says changes to pressurization outside the facility appear to have resolved the issue — and residents told CBC their water quality improved.
Graham Gagnon, director of the Centre for Water Resource Studies at Dalhousie University, said turbidity has many different causes and could originate anywhere from older iron pipes to a stream.
"Some sources have sort of a natural ability to have turbidity in it, so small particles that might be in our river system. that are floating in a river system, for example, may be the origin of the particle," he said.
Gagnon said public health guidelines define specific levels and targets for when drinking water is unsafe to consume at the tap.
"Most water suppliers would have a good sense of those values," he said.
Bathurst plans to begin a unidirectional flushing program in 2022, which it hopes will reduce the frequency of brown, earthy water in the distribution system.
In early October, Pickard said his water issues began to improve. But during an interview with CBC, he poured a glass to check the quality — and the dirt was back.
"I guess it's not resolved," he said.
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