It’s been almost four years but the water supply in Wells has finally been given a clean bill of health.
A Water Quality Advisory was issued by Northern Health back in January of 2021 for lead in the water supply and the community has relied on bottled water ever since.
Mayor Ed Coleman says that triggered an investigation and some reports.
“And out of that report came the recommendation to invest in our current water plant to the tune of 640 thousand dollars. We did do that investment over time, with the federal government, ourselves and the province, as it takes quite a while with all the different engineers that have to be involved and environmental folks. So we got through all that and finally got the plant to the level that it was at 100 percent. Then we could do a regiment of water testing over the last months and we have a clean bill of health on the water, for cooking and for consumption.”
Coleman says just like any household in any community, it’s always good to let your water run because water settles and it does collect different minerals and sediments.
He says this system will now stabilize things until a new water system is in place.
“With the Cariboo Gold Project, we will be getting a new water source under the environmental assessment act and that’s just to get a more robust system that is away from the town, maybe a really quality spring in the hillside where it can come through a pipeline and be treated.”
Coleman says Barkerville, for example, is fed by a spring and has really great water.
He says testing will continue through Northern Health.
. “We have to take water tests into Northern Health at least once or twice a month, sometimes more frequently depending on the results we get each month, so they monitor multiple points. They take multiple tests in from multiple points in the community, the water plant itself plus different locations in the community and some private residences that help us with that.”
Coleman says there are 15 testing points in total.
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