Community News

TOTTENHAM DRINKING WATER STILL IMPROVING

AMOUNT OF TRIHALOMETHANES STEADILY REDUCING SINCE PIPELINE WAS INSTALLED LAST JUNE

BRAD PRITCHARD bpritchard@simcoe.com

The town's efforts to improve the quality of drinking water in Tottenham are still heading in the right direction.

The annual drinking report for the town's drinking water systems shows that more progress has been made to reduce the level of the trihalomethanes (THMs) in the water

At the end of 2022, the annual running average of THMs in the Tottenham

drinking water system registered at 58.2 micrograms per litre, well below the provincial safety standard of 100 micrograms

per litre.

The THM levels have been steadily dropping since the new pipeline that sources water from

Georgian Bay in Collingwood was commissioned in June of last year. The full report can be viewed on the town's website in

the March 13 committee of the whole agenda.

THMs, which are a byproduct of the chlorination process used to treat the drinking water, have been linked in some studies to potential health risks.

A review by Public Health Ontario classified THMs as possibly carcinogenic to humans or "not classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans."

It also noted that while there have been some studies that link THM exposure with adverse reproductive effects, the association is not consistently found.

When it comes to longterm exposure, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has previously stated that if 100,000 people were exposed to elevated THM levels for 70 years, there would be one additional cancer.

Monthly water reports are posted to the town's website.

NEWS

en-ca

2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281560885039718

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