IKAAHUK/SACHS HARBOUR - Sachs Harbour was put under a boil water advisory last week after water samples came back with elevated coliform bacteria counts.

Sachs Harbour has been under a boil water advisory since Thursday, July 10. A high choliform count along with broken chlorination equipment forced the Stanton Heath Authority to enact the boil order. - Brodie Thomas/NNSL photo

The Hamlet of Sachs Harbour is responsible for submitting weekly water samples to a lab in Inuvik to test for coliform bacteria counts, and E.coli bacteria.

"Both of those tests are an indication of whether there has been sewage or fecal contamination of the water. The total coliform test was positive but the E.coli was negative," said Duane Fleming, chief environmental health officer for the Stanton Territorial Health Authority.

Fleming said the coliform count in itself was not enough to warrant a boil water order, but health officials who travelled to Sachs Harbour also discovered that chlorination equipment was not working properly. Both issues together required the boil order.

"In this case the chlorination equipment wasn't working and they were supposed to be batch chlorinating, which means adding chlorine right to the water in the truck. But that apparently wasn't being done,"

Sachs Harbour's SAO Raymond Kaslak said the batch chlorination was being carried out, but that the driver was unaware that he needed to wait 20 minutes after adding the chlorine.

"I think the water was being delivered before the chlorine had time to thoroughly mix around," said Kaslak.

The problem with the town's water was traced to the delivery truck within a few days of the boil water order.

Kaslak said a test from the town's water sources showed they were not contaminated. It was only water that had been delivered that was showing higher than normal counts of coliform bacteria.

"We shut the truck down on Tuesday (July 15) for a whole day and just disinfected it. We emptied it and it is on the road again," he said.

Kaslak said according to procedure, the Stanton Territorial Heath Authority must have two clean tests from the community before the boil order can be lifted. If there's no sign of bacteria, the boil water order should be lifted sometime this week.

Kaslak said the Department of Public Works is working to resolve problems with the chlorination equipment. Filtering equipment is still working and the town will continue with batch chlorination for each load of drinking water.