1. First Nations Water Symposium Shaun Mackie A/Regional Environmental Health Manager Addressing Water Quality in First Nations

2. What is “Quality” Water? Clean Safe Reliable

3. Drinking Water Testing You cannot tell if water is safe by: Looking Smelling Tasting The only way to reliably trust water is to test.

4. Ongoing Sampling/Testing to Meet Guidelines Turbidity Chlorine Residual Microbiological

5. Drinking Water Guidelines Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality Ontario Regulation 170/03

6. “What is Done if the Drinking Water Results Fail to Meet the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality?” If the water is not safe, an advisory is recommended

7. Drinking Water Advisories Boil Water Advisory Boil Water Order – MOH Do Not Consume Do Not Use

8. Communication of a Drinking Water Advisory EHO makes immediate contact with community to recommend advisory. EHO follows up with written report.

9. Boil Advisories in Ontario Currently 31 First Nations have a boil advisory in place. (As of March 5, 2010)

10. Current Ontario Advisory Breakdown Inadequate Disinfection or Residuals40.2% Equipment Malfunction27.2% Unacceptable Microbiological Quality12% Unacceptable Turbidity9.8% Deterioration in Source Water Quality7.6% Operation Would Compromise Public Health3.2% Epidemiological Evidence of Disease Outbreak0% ------- 100%

11. WaterTrax Online database for water quality data. Labs automatically upload results into WaterTrax. Communities can also enter Colilert testing results. Boil Advisory reports are generated weekly.

12. Advisory Effectiveness 100%

13. Thank you Shaun Mackie A/Regional Environmental Health Manager Brantford, ON 519-751-6447 Shaun.Mackie@hc-sc.gc.ca