The City of St. John’s is advising residents serviced by the Petty Harbour Long Pond system, who are experiencing discoloured water, to use an alternative source of water for drinking.
Over the past several weeks, the city has been receiving complaints of intermittent discoloured water from residents serviced from Petty Harbor Long Pond. It has since been determined that the cause of the discoloured water is due to elevated levels of manganese, the city said in a news release Tuesday.
Manganese is one of the most prevalent metals naturally in our drinking waters, teh city said.
However some of the samples have exceeded the maximum acceptable limit of 0.12 mg/L which is affecting the colour and quality.
Manganese in drinking water is not a health concern for cleaning, washing foods or bathing, the city said.
Boiling, freezing, filtering, or letting water stand will not reduce manganese levels.
Manganese in water can stain plumbing fixtures and laundry.
Children under one year of age should have infant formula, infant food or drinking water prepared with bottled water or an alternative water source.
The city said it is continuing to monitor the bacteriological health of the drinking water by continuous monitoring of the treatment process at the treatment plant and by collecting distribution samples for analysis. All samples are tested for adequate chlorine residuals and are sent to the Provincial Health Laboratory for analysis.
The city is working to set up a water station at the municipal depot at Blackler Avenue starting Wednesday and will work on additional water stations in the coming days.
