More than 140 surgeries rescheduled due to boil-water advisory in Halifax Regional Municipality
There is a possibility of unchlorinated drinking water in several areas
About 145 surgical procedures planned for Tuesday and Wednesday have had to be rescheduled because of a boil-water advisory that's affecting more than 200,000 customers in Halifax Regional Municipality.
The procedures include surgeries and endoscopies at the QEII Health Sciences Centre and other affected health facilities, Nova Scotia Health spokesperson Keith Corcoran said in an emailed statement.
"Procedures involving patients in the urgent/high risk categories have, or will, go ahead," Corcoran wrote. "Healthcare staff are doing their very best to reduce any inconveniences."
Herman Pierro, who travelled with his wife, Christine, from Wagmatcook First Nation in Cape Breton, didn't find out until they got to the hospital in Halifax that his lung cancer surgery was being pushed back.
"I was bummed out. I didn't know what to expect," Pierro said. "It's on Friday now. I just hope it's not cancelled [again]."
In a news release early Tuesday, Halifax Water announced a boil-water order for customers in Beaver Bank, Middle and Lower Sackville, Upper Hammonds Plains, Bedford, Fall River, Halifax, Timberlea, Spryfield and Herring Cove that are served by the J.D. Kline (Pockwock Lake) water treatment facility.
The utility said water can still be used, but it should be boiled for at least one minute before using for drinking, preparing infant formula, making ice cubes or juices, washing fruits or vegetables, cooking, brushing teeth, or anything for human consumption.
Residents can find out if their address is under the boil-water order by using this interactive map.
The advisory will be in place until further notice.
Planned power outage caused issue
Jeff Myrick, communications manager for Halifax Water, said a power outage at the water treatment facility in Upper Hammonds Plains on Monday evening resulted in an electrical issue inside the plant.
He confirmed to CBC News the issue was caused by a planned Nova Scotia Power outage for the Hammonds Plains area around 10:30 p.m. AT.
Water continued to be treated, but lacked chlorine disinfection for approximately 30 minutes. The interruption allowed a limited amount of unchlorinated water to enter the system.
"The question now is where it is in the system and when levels will start to spike up again," Myrick told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia. "As it moves through the system, it will mix in with other chlorinated water."
He said the boil-water advisory will last approximately two days, based on a similar incident at the same facility last July.
The utility said it is monitoring the water quality and consulting with the provincial Environment Department and the medical officer of health.
Chlorination is the last phase of the treatment process before it leaves the facility, said Myrick.
He said it's not clear why the chlorination process didn't continue after the power outage.
Déjà vu
A boil-water advisory was issued last July after an electrical issue at the same water treatment facility.
That issue caused widespread disruptions throughout the municipality, prompting businesses and daycares to close and leading hordes of people to flock to grocery stores for bottled water.
Myrick said Tuesday's advisory is similar in terms of its impact on customers, but the cause is different. He said it was an external power interruption that caused Monday's outage, whereas last July it was caused by an internal electrical issue.
He said many improvements were implemented to the system following last summer's incident.
"We were actually just a few days away from completing an installation of a system to automate the transition to chlorine redundancy and that would have avoided this issue altogether," Myrick said.
"It's real unfortunate that we were so close to having the redundancy in place … but we are apologizing, of course, to all our customers that this has happened and we can appreciate that this is significantly impacting their lives."
Myrick noted the current electrical issue will not impact the work being done to install the new system.
The Halifax Water website said it is required by the provincial Environment Department to maintain a minimum level of chlorination in the distribution system to ensure the water is adequately disinfected throughout the network.
Halifax Water spokesperson Brittany Smith said Tuesday afternoon the utility had been in contact with Nova Scotia Health, several hospitals and schools to let them know about the advisory and how to manage their water needs.
Smith said the utility issued an advisory last summer using the full provincial alert system, which sent out notices to people's personal cellphones. They decided against that method this time around, using social media, the hfxALERT platform and a notice on the Weather Network instead.
Businesses manage second advisory in six months
Charlotte Ashley, owner of Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Halifax, told CBC News on Tuesday the establishment came up with some "contingencies" after the previous boil-water advisory, when the cafe decided to close shop.
"We've looked at ways of loading the machine with boiled water or making sure that they have water tanks internally that have been kept at a certain temperature," she said.
Ashley said she started her morning getting as much bottled water as she could to bring to Trident. Using bottled water hasn't been ideal, she said, but they have been keeping an eye on water temperatures to make sure it's safe to drink.
Andy Thomson, the owner of Synergy Hospitality Inc. which operates Station Six and Spinnakers restaurants in Halifax, called the situation "frustrating."
Thomson told CBC News that Station Six runs on a generator in the event of bad weather.
"Why can't Halifax Water do the same thing with their substations to compensate for that problem?"
Thomson said they're boiling water at both restaurants and have purchased hundreds of dollars worth of bottled water, pop and ice.
"It's January and everybody that's in [the] restaurant business knows that this is our downtime and every dollar, every penny counts," he said. "We just don't need to be spending dollars and dimes where we don't have to, especially [on] something that's out of our control."
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With files from Information Morning, Preston Mulligan, Danielle Edwards, Kayla Hounsell
