Some residents on Lees Road will be forced to drink bottled water for the foreseeable future after testing on Lee's Creek showed the waterway is polluted with Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS).
In June, the Department of National Defence (DND) sampled off-site residential water supplies near 22 Wing North Bay for PFAS and of 27 results received so far, two tested residences exceed the Health Canada screening values for drinking water. BayToday has requested the actual numbers from DND.
Ashley Lemire, Media Relations replied in an email that, "The water samples are undergoing a final quality control analysis at provincially-accredited laboratories to confirm the levels. Once confirmed, results will be made available.
"Acceptable levels for PFAS are guided by Health Canada drinking water screening values. Screening values are established at a level designed to protect the health of Canadians, including children, based on a lifetime's exposure to the substance. Interpretation of PFAS results is complex, and cannot be made simply by comparing lab results to a table of values."
See: Don't drink water or eat fish from this city waterway
And: City needs to be cautious with chemical leaking from Lee's Creek says expert
DND contacted the affected homeowners and nearby residents and is providing them with bottled water until additional water testing is conducted and a long-term solution is in place.
The five remaining water sample results are expected shortly.
DND says it will immediately notify homeowners of any results that exceed the Health Canada screening values for drinking water, and will contact residents within one to two weeks of receiving validated results that are within the Health Canada screening values. Additional sampling will also be carried out at select locations to determine if seasonal and environmental conditions impacted results from previous testing.
The creek empties into Trout Lake just a few hundred yards from the city's drinking water plant.
Previous testing, conducted in February 2017, sampled for PFAS in a base water supply well and three monitoring wells in the bedrock on the south side of 22 Wing North Bay. While detectable levels of PFAS were found, samples were all within Health Canada screening values for drinking water.
Subsequent precautionary sampling of off-site residential water supplies in April indicated results were within the Health Canada Drinking Water Screening Values. The last round of water testing, conducted in June, was to monitor for seasonal variability and to expand the sampling program in certain areas.
DND cites privacy concerns for not making public the testing area.
"The information gathered during the sampling process will be protected as private, as it will include property owner names, addresses, and sampling results. Residents that have not been contacted by DND regarding water sampling, are not in the affected area," says a DND release.
From the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, DND used extinguishing substances containing Perfluoroalkylated substances at former firefighting training areas at the North Bay Airport. DND says these activities were conducted in accordance with the accepted practices and regulations of the time.
