Working on water solutions

High levels of trihalo-methanes (THM) found in the Torrent River, the source of Hawkes Bay's drinking water, have prompted the Department of Health to conduct byweekly tests for a year.

In August 2010, recommendations will be forwarded from the department to the town council in a report identifying THM levels and which step forward is best.

Port Saunders has also had problems with THMs - recent tests put them at over twice the legal limit of 100 parts per billion.

Port Saunders has been approved for a water purification centre, which Mayor Tony Ryan expects to see built in his community by next spring.

"We've been in talks with the engineers," said Mayor Ryan. "We don't have costing estimated yet but we have been approved as one of 12 communities on the west coast to receive a centre. We've been hammering away at this THM thing for years."

Residents will be able to get clean drinking water at the building, cost shared 90/10 between the municipality and the province.

Hawkes Bay will move forward once testing is complete.

"Once the study is released, they will also make recommendations of how to solve this problem," Hawke's Bay mayor Lloyd Bennett said. "They'll either say, 'move your intake, find a new source of drinking water', or they will say, 'you need a different type of filtration system to filter out the THMs'."

Concerned over the health affects, Hawke's Bay council successfully secured 90-10 funding, wherein the provincial and federal government's split 90 per cent of the costs, while the community pays 10 per cent, for the testing.

"Once the water-quality study comes back, if it indicates that there is no problem with the water, the next thing is to move the intake or find a new source of drinking water," Mr. Bennett said.

Recent studies on human consumption have reported associations between THMs and bladder and colon cancer, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

"High THM levels are known as a carcinogenic; it's very bad for elderly people and especially for pregnant women," Mr. Bennett said.

He added that test results have to be concluded before knowing the THM levels and understanding what threat - if any - exists.

"And then council will have to look and see how much it is going to cost to put that filtration system in and how much it is going to cost to maintain that system, and can we, as a small town, afford to do that."