Madeline Baker, Times-Chronicle
The Town of Osoyoos has recommitted to providing support and funds for a new groundwater treatment facility intended to lower manganese levels in the town’s drinking water supply.
At their February 22, 2022 meeting, city council members unanimously voted to support TRUE Consulting’s application for $8.3 million in grant money for the first phase of their Water Treatment and Manganese Removal Project.
According to Jared Brounstein, Director of Operational Services for Osoyoos, the need to progress with this project may soon become urgent due to Osoyoos’s “out of compliance” levels of manganese.
“At some point, I’m sure [Interior Health] is going to tell us that we need to move forward with some sort of water treatment facility,” Brounstein said, noting that the city’s permit to operate Osoyoos’s water supply system could be at risk in the future, “at which point the council will have no choice but to fund this.”
Council also committed to provide the remaining $3 million required to cover the project’s full $11.3 million price tag, as was previously laid out in the city’s five year financial plan.
In the time since TRUE Consulting sent their first application for grant funding to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s environmental quality program, the projected cost of their project has increased 30% due to recent supply chain issues arising from both public health and environmental crises.
Despite not yet receiving word about their first two applications, they have gone ahead with a third application to reflect this change in costs.
Along with its primary purpose of reducing manganese levels, the proposed water treatment plant would also use UV treatment and chlorination to keep Osoyoos’s drinking water supply free of common bacterial contaminants such as e.coli, streptococcus, and legionella.
A second, smaller water treatment plant will likely be part of the second phase of TRUE Consulting’s project, according to Brounstein, who projects that the second plant will be about half the size of the first and cost closer to $5 million to build.
Concerns about manganese levels in Osoyoos’s drinking water first arose in 2019, when Health Canada announced their plans to lower acceptable levels due to new scientific information about its potential risks.
At that time, the Times-Chronicle reported that manganese linings in all of Osoyoos’s water mains were likely causing elevated levels in the town’s water supply.
Health BC now confirms via their website, healthlink.bc.ca, that high levels of manganese in drinking water can “harm brain development in infants and young children.” Adults are at lower risk, but should still avoid direct exposure through drinking water.
The maximum acceptable concentration of manganese per liter of drinking water sits at 0.12 milligrams. Currently, Osoyoos records a concentration of 0.135 milligrams of manganese per liter.
Parents or caretakers concerned about their child’s potential manganese intake are recommended to use bottled water for drinking, food preparation for infants, and formula preparation for babies. Boiling water is not recommended by Health BC, as it may actually increase manganese levels.
