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Monday, August 17, 2015

What is a "Boil Water Notice"?

A Boil Water Notice is issued when the water supply does not meet health and safety standards set out by Vancouver Island Health Authority. It advises water system users that they should boil their tap water for drinking and other domestic purposes. When a boil water advisory is issued, you should follow the guidelines as set out by VIHA's Boil Water Guide.

The boil water advisory aims to protect the public from infectious agents that could be present in the drinking water supply..

Water can become unsafe in a variety of ways, including events like flooding or equipment failure. The most common reasons for boil water advisory are high turbidity, microbiological contamination or inadequate disinfection.

What is turbidity?

Turbidity is the most common form of water contamination to issue a boil water advisory. Turbidity is an indirect measure of particulates in the water which can result from clay, silt, organic matter, plankton or micro-organisms entering the water system. Cloudy water is the result of turbidity. The higher the turbidity level, the cloudier the water looks. Besides affecting the colour and taste of water, turbid water can be difficult to treat effectively.

How to treat turbidity?

If your town/city is experiencing a boil water advisory due to turbidity, according to VIHA, the only way to treat this issue is through Reverse Osmosis. Reverse Osmosis (RO) units are designed to filter water at the molecular level and should provide water that is free of pathogens. Therefore, you do not have to boil your water if you have a reverse osmosis water treatment device. (Source: VIHA - Boil Water FAQs.)

View our available RO systems here: Hydronix Residential Reverse Osmosis System

To learn more about RO, click here: RO Installation Diagram

What is microbiological contamination?

Microbiological contamination occurs when drinking water is contaminated with total coliforms, non coliforms, fecal coliforms and E. coli. This usually occurs due to flooding, over flowing sewage, septic leakage or farm and agricultural influences.

How to treat microbiological contamination?

You can treat a microbiological contamination in your drinking by installing your own point-of-entry water treatment system like the UV Dynamics Mini Rack System. A 2-stage system that starts with a fine mechanical filtration that will remove the particles that cause turbidity and then the water gets disinfected with Ultraviolet light which will kill micro-organisms and disease causing pathogens.

After the boil advisory is lifted, follow these steps to clean out your water supply

* Flush all water-using fixtures for 1 minute.
* Run cold-water faucets and drinking fountains for 1 minute before using the water.
* Drain and flush all ice-making machines in your refrigerator.
* Run water softeners through a regeneration cycle.
* Drain and refill hot water tanks set below 45 C (normal setting is 60 C).
* Change any pre-treatment filters (under sink style and refrigerator water filters, carbon block, activated carbon, sediment filters, etc.).

Talk to Van Isle Water about our extensive inventory
of water treatment solutions including: