Newmarket’s water system is in good shape and reached a five-year low in adverse or potential incidents in 2022, according to an annual report.
Council approved the annual drinking water system summary report and management review March 20, which highlighted the town’s water service over the past year. The town received a perfect score during its surprise inspection from the province in November.
The municipality also saw a decline in adverse incidents in 2022, going from 89 in 2021 to 55.
During a presentation last month, Councillor Victor Woodhouse said the town must maintain water services well.
“This is an extremely important area for us,” he said. “If we fall down in this area of safety in our community, we have failed our duty.”
The report is an annual provincial requirement to ensure municipal water systems meet best practices. Council received a detailed presentation in February to go over the town’s water system in detail.
The report highlights 55 adverse water quality incidents in the town in 2022, with 54 being too low chlorine and one due to coliform. The coliform prompted flushing and resampling of the affected area as remedial action, the report said, with the resampling coming back negative.
In comparison, 2018 and 2019 had 22 and 24 coliform incidents, respectively.
“The year-over-year improvement correlates directly to the town’s preventive and predictive maintenance tasks, pro-active monitoring, and overall increased performance from all drinking water system (operating authority) staff and management,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks inspection for the year, which had 24 hours of notice, saw the town getting a perfect score for the second consecutive year.
“These results are attributed to council’s commitment to the town’s residents and business by providing safe, clean drinking water,” the report said, adding it is also reflective of "staff’s commitment to maintain the town’s drinking water distribution system to its highest standard.”
