quote:

---

Health Canada Study:
In the fall of 2000 Health Canada released a report on a statistical review done
to study the relationship between turbidity events in the GVRD and health care
utilization data for gastrointestinal illness. The study covered the period from
1993 to 1998, before major improvements in water treatment were implemented.
This study showed a statistical association between turbid water and a small
amount of the day-to-day gastrointestinal illnesses in the GVRD.
The study results tell us that a small proportion of health care utilization for
gastrointestinal illness may be related to episodes of increased turbidity in the
drinking water in the GVRD. The major caution we received from the scientists
and statisticians who have reviewed the document is DO NOT OVER INTERPRET
the study. The study does not tell us the cause or severity of these illnesses nor
does the study establish a direct causal link between turbidity and waterborne
disease. However, in general, the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines suggest
that the lower the turbidity, the better.

---

From the Greater Vancouver Regional District web page.

Drinking water's fairly hard here -- no surprise, as it comes from the Rockies (lotsa limestone). If you leave a pot to air-dry, it'll develop calcium spots in the bottom.

Luckily it's not nearly so hard as elsewhere on the Prairies, especially where people drink well water.

Coming from Vancouver, which has probably the best drinking water in the country, we were startled by the chlorine taste in Calgary water. Like lots of folk here, we run it through a Brita filter to get rid of this taste.

Haven't seen turbid tap water yet, but early in the summer, the water department reported that there were unusually high amounts of silt and clay in the water that they had to filter out. I don't know why, but I'd guess it had to do with lots of spring snow. Perhaps it was melting off of ground that had already thawed, bringing more particulates with it. The city actually brought in voluntary watering restrictions. There was plenty of water, it was just that the treatment plants could supply only so much clear water, because of this silt load.

[ August 24, 2002: Message edited by: 'lance ]

I was just griping to sherpafish the other day that the idiots in the GVRD allowed logging around the Capilano watershed, and so all the damn water runoff from the rains just GOOSHes right into the lake along with a hefty dose of topsoil which silts up the reservoir something fierce to the point where it's out of commission 6 months out of the year because they can't filter it.