100 Mile House residents need not worry if they see a brown tinge to their tap water.
Water sewer operator Paul Donnelly says it’s not pretty, but it’s drinkable.
“It doesn’t look pretty, but I’d just let it run for a while and then it’ll clear up and then you can drink it,” he said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not going to kill you, it’s manganese, but it’s not exactly the most pleasant stuff to look at.”
The water treatment plant in 100 Mile House ran its annual flushing program roughly three weeks ago, said Donnelly.
That entails opening hydrants and closing valves to achieve a unidirectional flushing. The flushing helps to clear any build ups off the main water lines, which explains the temporary brown tinge.
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Donnelly said the new plant, which runs off wells instead of the creek, took some time to start filtering manganese from the water.
After months of operation, he said the plant is now filtering about 90 to 95 per cent of the manganese.
“So there’s still a little bit of it going through into the mains, but not very much as opposed to when we first started then plant up.”
Even still, he said it’s a good idea to flush the system about once a year.
Donnelly couldn’t say how long it would take until the manganese is completely cleared out and water is clear again, but he said there’s not reason to be concerned.
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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