Water boil advisory lifted for Olds

The water boil advisory has been lifted for the Town of Olds as of 1:00 p.m. this afternoon.

Officials are reminding residents to adhere to precautions before using their water. These precautions include:

• Turn on all taps and flush water lines for at least 5 minutes (Ten minutes if you live in an apartment building)

• Read and follow manufacturer instructions for flushing, cleaning, and sanitizing cisterns (containers that store drinking water), water filters, and ice and water dispensers.

• Drain and refill hot-water tanks that are set below 45ºC.

• Run water softeners through a regeneration cycle and tollow manufacturer instructions.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, Olds town officials stated that the first Alberta Health Services (AHS) water sample returned safe and clean with no bacteria or other concerns found.

The town had been under a boil water advisory since Sunday afternoon after a power failure at the Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission treatment plant.

On Friday evening of last week, the Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission’s treatment plant outside of Innisfail experienced a prolonged power outage. The Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission serves 30,000 people in the six communities, including Innisfail, Bowden, Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs and Crossfield.

"As we understand it, upon restarting the system, the pressure was enough to push existing sediment and sludge down the main line. Unfortunately for Olds, we are at the end of the older of the two main lines, meaning everything ended up here, filling our reservoirs with sediment," a previous press release from the town stated.

Crossfield did not experience significant issues, as it appears the newer line handled the restart better than the older line.

Olds town officials underlined that they would be meeting with the commission once the response is concluded to determine how exactly this happened and what can be done to prevent this from occurring in the future.

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