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Dozens Line Up to Buy Water As Vancouver's Boil-Water Advisory Continues

Posted on: Friday, 17 November 2006, 18:00 CST

By GREG JOYCE

VANCOUVER (CP) - Some people took the boil-water advisory for Greater Vancouver in stride, buying it in bottles or boiling it. Others worried about the long-term effects and at least one woman was blissfully unaware.

The advisory telling about two million residents of Canada's third-largest metropolitan area to boil their water for everything from drinking to scrubbing vegetables was partially lifted Friday, but it remained in effect for major centres such as Vancouver, Burnaby and North and West Vancouver.

Sandy Hill, who lives on the east side of Vancouver was unaware of the advisory.

"I didn't know we weren't supposed to drink it. I drank a bunch this morning. I'm still here," she said giggling about her good health.

One of the precautions that came with the advisory was not to brush your teeth with tap water.

"I brushed my teeth," she said proudly, before realizing: "Do you have to boil water to brush your teeth?"

Vladimir Burakov stood outside a Costco in downtown Vancouver, waiting for it to open. He wasn't there to buy bottled water, although that was the case for many of the 100 or so people with him in the long lineup.

"I am from Russia and we get so many problems with water," he said, appearing amused at the concern. "You get used to it. It's not a big deal. It's always brown in Russia."

The decision to lift the advisory for some of the outer suburbs brought relief to about half the people affected Thursday, but about 900,000 were still faced with a weekend of having to boil their water.

They're the people who get their water from the Seymour and Capilano reservoirs, which were affected severely by storms that have pounded British Columbia's Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island this week.

Those two reservoirs are huge, natural lakes situated in the mountains directly behind North and West Vancouver. The problem with the water arose when the storm caused slides into the reservoirs on Wednesday.

Residents who were told they could turn their taps back on get their water from the Coquitlam reservoir, which didn't suffer the effects of mudslides.

A spokesman for the Greater Vancouver Regional District would not confirm the boil-water advisory had been partially lifted, saying the district would be holding a news conference later in the day.

Viviana Zanocco, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, said the turbidity levels for the Coquitlam reservoir were at acceptable levels.

"The (Greater Vancouver Regional District) has managed, through its diversion levels, to ensure some of the municipalities are receiving only water from that source," she said.

Zanocco said the turbidity levels for the other two reservoirs were falling, but they are still too high.

That meant some areas of the Vancouver area had crystal clear water, while others, particularly downtown, were forced to decide Thursday morning whether to shower in cloudy, tea-coloured water that smelled vaguely bad.

Restaurants, care homes, daycares and even gyms were relying on bottled water, even though some had access to water out of their filtration systems.

Nick Whitle, an administrator at the Inglewood long-term care residence in West Vancouver, said his facility is using bottled water and has pre-ordered at least until the end of next week.

"Of course, a lot of other facilities are using bottled water, so the supplies seem to be dwindling in certain places."

Jack Lamont was at the Costco early. He is part-owner of four downtown restaurants and said he was hoping to buy as much bottled water as he could get his hands on.

"It's a bit of a scenario because you need water every day just for cleaning hands or cooking and also to give to your guests when they come."

But when the doors opened, staff announced they were all sold out.

In a city known for a coffee shop on every corner, some cafes decided it's too big a task to boil litres and litres of water to keep the machines going, while others were brewing up a storm with filtered or boiled water.

A visiting couple from South Africa who declined to give their names said the advisory was a shock.

"It's frightening, whether it's the toilet or the shower or washing your cups and saucers," said the husband.

He said he had never experienced a boil-water advisory in South Africa.

Angie and Candace sat at a downtown cafe, sipping from water bottles.

Candace has a small child and worried about giving her a bath.

"I wouldn't put my daughter in the tub," she said. "She likes to take a sip or two. I'm sure it wouldn't kill her but who wants to play around with that kind of thing?"

Another 100,000 people in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and 1,500 in Chemainus, south of Nanaimo, have also been told to boil their water.

B.C. Hydro is working from Vancouver Island to Chilliwack on the mainland to restore electricity to almost 60,000 homes still without power, down from almost 200,000 at the peak of Wednesday's storm.

Source: Canadian Press

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