Greater Sudbury under 'boil water advisory' [0:00-3:05]

Parts of Greater Sudbury and Northern Ontario will be under a boil water advisory until at least this evening. A first set of follow-up test results came back negative for coliform ecoli and showed no evidence of bacterial growth. However, public health has to wait for another set of results before the boil water advisory can be lifted. Much of the city proper has been impacted, including some surrounding communities with many stores selling out of bottled water. And joining us now is the Director of Water and Waste Water Services for the City of Greater Sudbury, Sean Cretchen. Sean, welcome. Thank you very much for being here. Talk to us about the boil water advisory and effect in Sudbury. What prompted it and what does it mean for residents? Hi, Renee. Thank you for having me. So what prompted it was that we had some adverse results that were received once day afternoon and upon some assessment and the possible risk to the public health, the medical officer of healthy, clarity, boil water advisory that evening. These adverse samples under investigation, what can you tell us about that? It's still under investigation at the moment. I can share that they look unusual in one system, three of nine samples are adverse. The other six were good and in the other system, one of three was adverse. So this is currently affecting two systems. As I said, well, as you said, the first set have come back clear of any equal liar total call from yesterday. I'm confident that the same thing will happen for the second set and the boil water advisory would be lifted by a dinner time this evening. By dinner time. Okay. What are the biggest concerns right now? The biggest concerns are just public trust and water. I want to reiterate that we are actively working to investigate this issue. I am not concerned at all with the safety of the drinking water. I do believe that there is some error in either sampling or maybe the lab testing. I want to reiterate to the public that the drinking water is safe. The drinking water is safe as long as it is as it is boiled. Yeah. So it is my opinion as a water professional, I do not want to go right the medical officer of health who has issued a boil water advisory. So I would let the public ask the public to follow their advice and boil water for at least one minute. Okay. What about bottled water? We're hearing that stores are selling out. How big of a concern is that? Honestly, I think it's a misunderstanding of the advisory. We have in our city had do not drink advisories due to water main breaks and those affect much smaller areas. So do not drink advisory as yes go get bottled water. This is a boil water advisory where residents can simply boil water for a minute at their house. So I'm not concerned with running out of water stores. All right. Sean will leave it there. Thank you very much for your time. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. That is the director of water and wastewater services for the city of Greater Sudbury, Sean