Government Protecting Water Safety

The Nova Scotia government has taken numerous steps to improve water safety in the province, David Morse, Minister of Environment and Labour, said today, March 28.

"We take the protection of Nova Scotia's public and municipal drinking water supplies seriously," said the minister. "That's why we have done so much over the last year to ensure water safety. We are also taking extra time to review the water strategy and to share it with other government departments, to be sure it is as comprehensive as possible."

Since the release of a water strategy discussion paper last spring, the Department of Environment and Labour has moved ahead with several initiatives:

• hiring two new hydrogeologists;
• hiring a water-monitoring technician;
• putting a water-data system in place to track information on all municipal supplies, water withdrawal points, staffed by data manager and monitoring technician;
• completing an audit of all 82 municipal water supplies in the province, with every single one of them came up negative for fecal coliform bacteria -- the cause of the crisis in Walkerton; and
• working on projects in the Annapolis Valley to improve water availability and on the Bras d'Or Lakes to address water quality protection.

Nova Scotia has also made the Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines a requirement under environmental regulations. The government also requires operators of water-treatment facilities to be certified and has improved the requirements for the construction of water wells.

"Protecting Nova Scotia's drinking water does not solely depend on the release of this strategy," concluded the minister. "However, once finalized and released, the strategy will ensure water initiatives that take place across many departments are better coordinated and strengthen the many positive actions our government has already taken."