Real-time monitoring could decrease water advisories

A study by Ontario researchers suggests real-time monitoring technology at water treatment plants on reserves could significantly reduce the number of drinkingwater advisories issued for First Nations across the country.

Edward McBean, an engineering professor at the University of Guelph and his former student, Kerry Black, explored the potential benefit of the systems, which use sensors to track characteristics like flow rates and chlorine levels, in an effort to help reduce the number of precautionary boil-water advisories that can linger on reserves for weeks.

After analyzing such advisories and interviewing those who work on water treatment plants in several communities, the researchers suggest the number of advisories could be reduced by more than 36 per cent if real-time monitoring was implemented.

“I believe real-time monitoring is part of the solution to the water advisories on First Nations,” McBean told The Canadian Press in an interview. “This method can empower communities to regain control of their water systems.

The research was published recently in the Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology — AQUA.

McBean said he was inspired to look into the area after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged in 2016 to eliminate boilwater advisories in Indigenous communities.

McBean decided to focus on developing a process to tackle precautionary drinking-water advisories. The idea, he said, is to reduce the number of such advisories that are not related to inadequate water quality.

“Across all Canadian communities, 78 per cent of boil-water advisories were issued on a precautionary basis,” the study says.

Those problems, McBean said, often do not mean a change in water quality, but a boil-water advisory will nonetheless remain in effect until conditions return to normal. And water testing, especially for remote communities, takes a long time with samples being shipped off to laboratories hundreds of kilometres away. Real-time monitoring systems, McBean suggests, can deal with the matter.

There are sensors that monitor attributes that include water temperature and pH levels — with alerts that can be sent in real-time to an operator who can then act swiftly on that information.

Real-time monitoring also requires training, which some are averse to, the paper said. And if the quality of the water going into the system is inadequate or the infrastructure is poor, real-time monitoring is irrelevant, McBean said.