The water is safe again to drink in Wallaceburg.
Chatham-Kent Public Health has rescinded a boil water advisory for the Wallaceburg distribution system on the Chatham-Kent municipal water supply.
The advisory was issued last Wednesday following a power outage that wreaked havoc on the community’s water distribution system as the taps stopped flowing, which prompted schools to send students home early.
A media release issued Saturday afternoon stated the health unit has received the test results from the water samples taken on Thursday and Friday.
“These tests confirmed the results were satisfactory,” stated the health unit. “Based on these results, the medical officer of health, Dr. W. David Colby, has rescinded the boil water advisory.”
The power outage, that also impacted Dresden, was caused by a tractor clipping a Hydro One transmission tower near Sarnia Wednesday morning that caused Entegrus to lose its power supply from Hydro One.
The power outage came at a bad time with the area’s water tower out of service for repairs, which left the Wallaceburg water system a little more vulnerable to any problems in its pipes.
“It makes the distribution system a little more rigid,” said Tim Sunderland, general manager of the Chatham-Kent public utilities commission in an interview on Thursday. “The water hammer just found the weak spot. That’s all it did this time.
“It’s no different than shutting the tap off in your house quickly. You’ll hear a little hammer if you have the water flowing in your taps and you shut them off very quickly.”
Often the result of a pressure surge, a water hammer occurs when the flow of water is suddenly reversed in the pipes. This time, the water hammer resulted in a broken water main on Base Line Road, near Gillard Street.
The water distribution system was back to normal pressure quickly, but the PUC just needed to wait for the test results from CK Public Health.