The Town of Lampman has had some issues with its water supply recently, as two of their water mains broke on different occasions, causing a water shortage.
On the most recent occasion, a water main broke but so did a valve. Normally with large or small-scale plumbing water pipes can’t be worked on until the water source is shutoff.
“The value to shut the affected part of town off was broken,” said Greg Wallin, the town’s administrator.
Every set of pipes has a main shut-off value and for the one in Lampman for the water main that broke last week, its shut-off value was inoperable and the town had to go to the next shut-off value, which put the town without a water supply briefly.
“We had so little snow this year that the frost went really deep into the ground and now that the weather is warming up, all the ground around our water mains and pipes is moving and is causing problems,” said Wallin. “We are hoping out water issues are over because it is expensive getting all things fixed.”
The other issue earlier in the winter was too much turbidity in the Lampman water supply.
Turbidity is an umbrella term that refers to the concentration of particulate matter in water. When the turbidity levels are too high the water will appear murky.
That particulate matter could be anything from regular dirt to manure that has found its way into the water supply.
“I know they said a lot that turbidity can’t be over one. I believe they said one part per-million is the limit of turbidity in a water supply and we were over one,” said Wallin.
In Lampman their issues with high turbidity levels were resolved by making numerous upgrades to the town’s water filtration plant that is now operating fine, pumping out clean drinking water.
“It’s not that it was in the water was going to be harmful to anyone but we were over one part per million and our plant had to undergo some changes to get that number back down below one,” said Wallin.
“There are communities in the province that have been on boiled water for months and even years because of high Turbidity levels,” he added.
A precautionary water advisory due to turbidity was issued on Jan. 30. People were asked to boil water for cooking, brushing teeth and shaving. That advisory remained until March 10.
Another precautionary advisory was issued on March 15 due to water main breaks, and it remains in effect. Two water samples have been sent off, and the town is waiting for them to come back clean before the advisory can be lifted.
