FAQs

The City’s drinking water system has not deteriorated; only the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality (GCDWQ) have changed. Northern Health has stated that:

• When preparing infant formula, use an alternate source of water that is below the manganese Guideline for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.
  
  
• There are no concerns for other community members to consume City water.
  
  
• There are no concerns for community members, including infants, to use City water for showering, bathing and other household uses.

The City’s water manganese levels are generally above Health Canada’s Maximum Acceptable Concentration so Northern Health recommends that residents find an alternate safe water source to make infant formula.

Health Canada reviews and assesses all identified health risks associated with manganese in drinking water. It incorporates new studies and approaches and takes into consideration the availability of appropriate treatment technology. Based on this review, the drinking water guideline for manganese is a maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) of 0.12 mg/L (120 µg/L), based on infants, the most sensitive population. The aesthetic objective is ≤0.02 mg/L. Although the MAC established in this document is based on infants, this value is intended to protect all Canadians.

There are several potential ways to remove manganese. As part of the conceptual design work, multiple alternates options were assessed, including membrane filtration, biological media filtration and point of entry/point of use. The preferred option was selected based on simplicity, reliability, ease of operation and maintenance requirements, and most favorable capital cost.

Chlorine is used in the manganese removal process to continuously regenerate the filter media (cleans and removes minerals from the filters so they can continue to filter the water properly). By adding a low dose of chlorine at the beginning of the water treatment process, both media regeneration and residual disinfection can be achieved.

When chlorine is added to water it reacts with any organic content and creates chlorine by-products. Health Canada sets safety limits for chlorine by-products to reduce the risk of any negative impacts on human health.

The addition of chlorine to drinking water has greatly reduced the risk of waterborne diseases. Although other disinfectants are available, chlorine remains the choice of water treatment experts. Current scientific data show that the benefits of chlorination are much greater than any health risks from by-products. There are low organics in the Quesnel groundwater, which means that there is low potential to form these by-products.

No, fluoride will not be added to the water treatment system.

The cost of water treatment is significant. The next step is preliminary design which will give the City a water treatment system design package that is ready to submit for future Provincial/Federal funding.

There are no current plans for residential water metering. Residential water metering is identified as an option to consider in the City’s Water Conservation Strategy, but the cost-benefit analysis completed has determined that residential metering is not recommended at this time.

The City of Quesnel is a water supplier under the BC Drinking Water Protection Act (DWPA) and is responsible for providing safe drinking water. Installing a water treatment system in each home is not a viable option for the City because the number of water users exceeds the allowable threshold for this type of treatment. As well, the capital and operating/maintenance costs for this type of treatment are unfavorable, as compared to the recommended approach.

In the 2021 calendar year, water usage in the City system resulted in 2,745,935 cubic metres used.

The 2014 Water Master Plan assessed several source water options and recommended that groundwater continue to be used. Surface water would be considerably more expensive to treat and would require the construction of a new river intake(s) and additional distribution infrastructure. Quesnel has existing groundwater wells that provide a plentiful amount of water. The groundwater quality is excellent beyond having elevated manganese.

The 2014 Water Master Plan concluded that it would be best to construct three water treatment plants at the North, Central and West region well sites. This is the most cost-effective option in the long-term as it eliminates the need for new distribution system trunk mains. It also increases the system resiliency and reliability.