Town famous for water can’t drink a single drop
Possible contamination causes taps to be shut in Greenwood, B.C.
VANCOUVER— Residents in the B.C. community known for having the best-tasting tap water in the world will have to wait until at least the weekend before being allowed to drink their prize-winning water after their supply was possibly contaminated.
Greenwood, a community of 676 people in the province’s interior, won an international award earlier this year after its tap water beat out competitors from Korea, China, Bulgaria and the U.S. The town won the designation of having the besttasting water in a municipality from the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition.
But residents were ordered to turn off the taps entirely Monday afternoon after the discovery of a broken lock at Greenwood’s reservoir, which stores close to one million litres.
“Right away when we discovered what happened, we declared a state of emergency and we started pounding on doors to tell people that our water may be contaminated,” said Greenwood Mayor Nipper Kettle.
“I’d like to think it’s not sabotage because everyone here knows how proud we are of our water.” NIPPER KETTLE GREENWOOD MAYOR
“I’d like to think it’s not sabotage because everyone here knows how proud we are of our water. But whoever did this ought to know that they’ve really messed up the lives of hundreds of people here.” Kettle said he doesn’t believe someone set out to damage the city’s water supply but rather that the lock was broken in an attempt by the intruder to steal materials such as copper wiring. The community’s water officials are flushing the system now and have sent water samples for testing. On Thursday, the restriction was lifted on using the water for bathing, but residents will still have to boil their water for drinking until at least early next week. Neighbouring towns have sent water for Greenwood residents, and some organizations have donated bottled water to the town. Greenwood’s water comes from a 40-metre-deep aquifer and is untreated. Paula Sittler, one of the owners of the Deadwood Junction, a coffee shop, bakery and general hangout for the town, said Thursday that coffee was still served using bottled water, but customers coming in for cinnamon buns and barbecue were left hungry. “We usually have fresh madefrom-scratch baking (but) without water, we couldn’t do it. We’ve made lots of promises that the buns and barbecue will be back soon,” she said. The concern wasn’t just about the water needed for baking and cooking, but the possibility that the pans could be contaminated if washed with the water.
Sittler doesn’t think anyone was malicious enough to contaminate Greenwood’s water supply.
“We’ve all learned from what happened in Walkerton, Ontario, that water safety should be heeded even if it causes inconvenience,” she said.
“We’ve always known we’ve had good water here and we’ll have that again soon.”