Boil water advisory in Brandon lifted; water main repairs underway

BRANDON -

One water main break near Brandon’s water treatment plant Monday morning led to a nearly three-day boil water advisory that affected thousands of Brandon residents.

In a notice Wednesday afternoon, the city said the advisory had been lifted by the Medical Officer of Health.

"The Brandon water system has met all conditions for rescinding the boil water advisory and the bacteriological testing results have met regulatory standards," the notice reads.

The city said results from two sets of bacteriological tests submitted 24 hours apart have met regulatory standards.

“This water main break has had the greatest impact that we’ve ever seen,” Patrick Pulak, operations general manager with the city, told CTV News. “Normally we deal with 20 to 30 residential units, maybe five to 10 commercial units. So just because of the location of the water main break so close to the water plant, it had a significant impact on our distribution system.”

The city said 6,500 residential units and 250 commercial units were under the advisory, covering effectively the entire west side of Brandon from west of 18th Street and south of the Assiniboine River to the city limits in both directions.

The pipe that broke was an asbestos concrete pipe that was installed in the 1960s.

“[The asbestos] doesn’t pose any health threat whatsoever,” said Pulak. “So when the boil water advisory was issued, it had nothing to do with the fact that it was asbestos concrete. It had everything to do with the fact that you’ve depressurized the system.”

One of the businesses affected was Princess Dental, but they had a solution built into each of their rooms.

“All of our rooms are independent water sources, so we were able to just continue as normal,” said Jerilyn Miscavish, Princess Dental’s office manager. “We did get bottled water to use in the independent reservoirs, so we were able to not have to reschedule any patients that day and we were just able to continue on.”

Some residents that spoke with CTV News said the city’s initial communication about the advisory could have been better, with the topic of communication in Monday’s advisory being brought up at that night’s regularly scheduled city council meeting.

“It was such a large area that was impacted, so how do you get the message out to that many people?” said Pulak, who noted that communication was one of the biggest challenges in this case.

The city sent out numerous PSAs through social media and news media, but residents that don’t use social media, or watch or listen to the news had to rely on finding out through word of mouth.

“Certainly council has asked us to take a step back and re-evaluate how we get our messages out to the public,” Pulak added.

Crews have begun fixing the water main break and work is scheduled to continue tomorrow.

The city said it will be reopening the Valleyview Spray Park at 77 Whillier Drive, and the Westridge Spray Park at 61 Silverbirch Drive as of 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The city said those with questions can call the City of Brandon Underground Utilities Section during business hours at 204-729-2285.