A photo of the Owen Sound Water Treatment Plant (photo provided by the City of Owen Sound)
The City of Owen Sound is celebrating the perfect score that was recently received for drinking water quality in 2022.
For the second year in a row, the city passed a rigorous inspection by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP).
Lara Widdifield is the Director of Public Works and Engineering, and says that “It’s a really notable achievement because there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes, constantly making sure that all of the criteria are met to provide safe and delicious drinking water to our residents.”
The testing criteria are nothing to take lightly.
Widdifield explains that there are a total of 150 questions that look for any non-compliance faults.
Some include record keeping and paperwork, while other categories take into account staff training and the tangible chemical testing results.
Those results are then calculated in a risk assessment, and as Owen Sound had no non-compliance faults, the water treatment team received a score of 100%.
She says that because of that hard work, her team is able to step up and provide the best, but it’s not without challenges.
“Our staff sometimes have to work long hours, or we have to make sure that we have enough staff that are qualified to do the work,” says Widdifield, adding “It’s a combination between engineering and chemistry and a whole bunch of other disciplines that they have to wrap into one particular skillset in order to run our plant.”
