The Council received the annual drinking water reports for the Haley, Beachburg and Cobden drinking water systems for 2021.
Superintendent Steve Hodson presented the annual public report on the three drinking water systems.
He said the performance reports carried out by the Ministry of Natural Resources were ‘amazing’ and ‘excellent’.
Councillor Nicholson asked what year it was when the Township had the discoloration in Cobden’s water system, which Hodson confirmed was in the 2021.
“This has happened before with discolored water.” he said. “Manganese is naturally occurring in the lake. Under certain circumstances, you get elevated levels: It turns your water kind of a brownish colour. It’s an aesthetic issue, it’s a naturally occurring element, it’s perfectly safe. It’s an aesthetic issue, it doesn’t look good. To battle it, you use a chemical called potassium promanganate which is a pink colour.”
Hodson said that it only occurred in Cobden’s water as it was surface water, rather than ground water.
“It’s a balancing act for the operators to get just the right colour in there.”
Lane Cleroux added there was a 2022 budget had a project to pursue a solution for the discoloration issue with OWCA leading the study.
“Hopefully this will provide some solutions to mitigate that.” he said.
The motion was carried.
