OLDS - Town of Olds officials say the boil water advisory issued Sunday for the community could be lifted today but there's a chance it won't occur until Tuesday.
"Best case scenario is that this advisory will be lifted sometime Monday afternoon. However, there is a chance that this will not occur until Tuesday. We apologize to everyone inconvenienced by this, especially our local restaurants, and we thank citizens and businesses for their patience and cooperation with this situation," the Town of Olds noted in a Monday morning update to the community.
The town continues to work with Alberta Health Services to provide them with the information they need to determine the state of the community's drinking water to lift the advisory.
Around 4 p.m. Sunday, Alberta Health Services (AHS) public health contacted the town stating that a boil water advisory was to be issued due to the continued discolouration of the town's water supply resulting from a power outage at the Anthony Henday Water Treatment Plant located near Innisfail.
The plant, operated by Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission, serves the communities of Innisfail, Bowden, Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs and Crossfield.
On Friday evening, the town says the plant experienced a prolonged power outage.
"As we understand it, upon restarting the system, the pressure was enough to push existing sediment and sludge down the main line. Unfortunately for Olds, we are at the end of the older of the two main lines, meaning everything ended up here, filling our reservoirs with sediment," the town's Monday update stated.
According to the town, "the other ‘end of line’ community, Crossfield did not experience significant issues, as it appears the newer line handled the restart better than the older line."
Town of Olds crews and Olds Fire Department members began flushing the community's water system Sunday afternoon, stopping around 3 p.m. to allow the water commission to flush the main line.
This stoppage was to prevent the town's reservoirs from becoming too depleted, the town said. Flushing caused a short-term loss of water pressure for most of town, but it only lasted approximately one hour.
"The town had been testing the water throughout the day and felt the water was safe for use, despite the discoloration. AHS felt that it best from a precautionary standpoint to issue the advisory until the turbidity could be reduced," the town's update stated.
Once the commission ended its flushing, the town resumed its flushing program around 7 p.m. Sunday evening. The effort had to be abandoned by 8:30 p.m. though, the town said, as the Olds Fire Department was called out to an emergency.
"We will be evaluating the situation Monday morning to see where our turbidity levels sit and again resume our flushing program. Public Works crews will be out sanding early Monday morning as much of this flushed water will freeze on the roadway," the town said.
Town officials say they will be meeting with the commission once the response is concluded to determine how exactly this happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
The town’s next update will be Monday afternoon at approximately 3 p.m.
