Lynden water still not drinkable

It is another dry day in the town of Lynden. The municipal well has tested positive for e-coli and residents were warned not to use the water. The city has provided jugs of fresh water, but some residents are finding it difficult to manage.

79-year old Olive Jenner can barely lift the jug. This is the water supplied by the City of Hamilton after Jenner’s H2O tested positive for e-coli: “It’s lifting that heavy jug to fill the kettle or pot because it’s quite heavy.”

She’s one of approximately 400 people and 130 homes effected by the drinking water advisory. Residents have been told not to use the water to drink, bathe or cook.

“The showers the worst, you can only sponge bath”

Even Ozzy has to drink bottled water.

The warning was issued after weekly water tests came back positive for e-coli.

Robert Hall, Hamilton Public Health: “E-coli shouldn’t be in a municipal drinking water supply — it comes from the intestines of humans and animals.”

And it can be deadly. 7 people lost their lives after drinking water contaminated with e-coli in Walkerton 14 years ago.

Hall says there hasn’t been any illness reported so far in Lynden: “But we’ve had calls from people that are concerned about the possibility so we are advising people to go to their family physician if they are experiencing diarrhea, vomiting or fever.”

This isn’t the first time residents of Lynden have had problems with their water. These two wells have been contaminated with lead for the past five years — and that’s made the e-coli situation worse.

Robert Hall: “Usually when people have bacterial contamination in a water supply, we issue a boil water advisory. Unfortunately, we can’t do that in this case because boiling the water would only accumulate the possible lead.”

Hamilton water is trying to determine the cause of the contamination but at this point still have no idea.

“Thank you.” In the meantime, Olive is getting a little help from her neighbours.

The water was re-tested last night and again tonight. Results are expected within 24 hours. It will take two consecutive negative tests before the advisory will be lifted.