LETHBRIDGE-It may seem like business as usual at Koster’s Bakery in Picture Butte, but it’s anything but.
“We had to take some action so we wouldn’t be stuck, and we could at least do the mixing that we had to do,” said owner Andy Koster.
Koster’s, along with everyone else in the town, is dealing with the aftermath of a significant water main break.
“Unfortunately, those issues are typically relatively routine, except in this case we were unable to isolate the break,” said town chief administrative officer, Mike Derricott.
Crews spent hours searching for the source of the leak but were forced to turn off the water to the entire town at around dinner time Wednesday. It was eventually tracked down to a faulty isolation valve.
“Service has been restored, about midnight last night it was turned back on but we do have a boil water order in effect and that will remain in effect until we do some flushing and testing to make sure there’s no contamination of the water lines,” explained Derricott.
The order means residents must bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute before drinking it, cooking with it, washing fruits and vegetables or brushing your teeth.
“Salmonella, E-coli, viruses, parasites can be contaminating the water,” said Dr. Vivien Suttorp with Alberta Health Services. “These organisms can result in a variety of illnesses, most of those would lead to diarrhea, vomiting.”
Alberta Health Services is working with town officials to continuously test water at various points throughout the system.
AHS expects the order to last anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.
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