At the last Council meeting, Water Wastewater Technician Jessica Fradley provided the Annual Drinking Water Report for 2022.
This is mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks (MECP). This ministry regulates and enforces the production and delivery of safe potable water to consumers under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), 2002 and associated regulations, which outlines treatment and testing parameters.
Each year the Owners of Drinking Water Subsystems commission a Summary Report to ensure the water systems under their control are delivering safe drinking water. The reports are also provided to the public to inform users about the quantity and quality of their municipally sourced drinking water. It includes details such as flow rates for the water supplied during the reporting period including monthly averages, maximum daily flow, and instantaneous peak flow rates with a comparison to the Permit to Take Water and the Municipal Drinking Water Licence.
It also includes a brief description of the system including the treatment chemicals used, summarizes the test results from samples taken, describes any corrective actions taken, and any major expenses incurred during the reporting period.
The Millbrook Drinking Water System consists of three (3) wells, a pump house with treatment and control facilities, chlorine contact pipe, water storage tank, booster pumping station and approximately 9.554 kilometers of distribution watermains with diameters of 150mm, 200mm and 250mm. The raw water for the Millbrook Drinking Water System is drawn from three (3) drilled wells (30m deep). These wells are non-GUDI wells, which means that the raw well water quality is not influenced by surface waters. This water is drawn through a submersible vertical turbine pump (one per well) rated at 1,500 Litres per minute. The three pumps discharge into a common discharge header and the pumping rate of each pump is controlled by a variable frequency drive.
The volume of water delivered in 2022 was within the limits stipulated in the Municipal Drinking Water Licence and the Permit to Take Water. These two documents allow a maximum water taking of 3,000 m3/ day; and a peak flow rate of 1,500 L/minute. However, paragraph 3.4 of the Permit to Take Water allows for the temporary exceedance of the peak flow rate when necessary for maintenance activities. In August and September operational staff performed valve maintenance and winterization activities, that resulted in a slight increase of peak flow over the allowable limit.
The annual inspection of the water system was conducted by the Ministry in August, with the final report submitted in October. The system received a rating of 100%. The report is available on the township website at www.cavanmonaghan.net, or a copy can be obtained on request at the municipal office. KG
